Nurturing Leads

How do you handle prospects who are not quite ready to buy?

There is a sale cycle in and for every company and product. Some are 1 second others, 3 years. First you need to know and understand what and how long your sales cycle is. Second you need to know where in the cycle any particular prospect is. Third, you can then rate your prospects based on where in the cycle they are as to the kind of information they need to be receiving to get them to the next level. As they move up the chart there comes a time where you can pass the leads from marketing to sales or if you are really good you have sales and marketing working in tandem on any given lead already.

Larson note: Personally I use education oriented content to stay on at the top of my prospects minds. I use what I feel are solid facts and ideas about my business and industry to educate them and feed their minds with what my company can and could be doing for them. When they are ready to buy, they are not only an educated client but an educated client in the Larson way of thinking.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

US Online Retailers Web Plans 2009

89% Are debuting sale pages on their sites
79% Have prioritized improving online checkout
73% Plan to add now filters to their product search functions
60% Plan to improve their home page
50% Plan to enhance product shots on site
41% Are evaluating brand new onsite search engines

*The State of Retailing Online 2009, Merchandising Report conducted by Forrester Research July 2009, Sample 117 retailers

Larson note: Did it take a recession for retailers to see that they needed to make some major changes to their online presence, or did they just not try to shop their own sites before?

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Favorite Marketing Channel

In a totally Unscientific poll the rankings of a favorite Marketing Channel
out of only 10 votes cast

10% Telemarketing - 1 vote
10% E-mail – 1 vote
30% Networking groups – 3 votes
10% Social Media Marketing – 1 vote
10% Radio/TV – 1 vote
10% Blog – 1 vote
20% Other – 2 votes

Larson note: Aside from the part of not knowing what the 2 others are, I was only really shocked at 1 vote for radio/tv. Everything else falls pretty much in line with the kids of responded I expecting in and on some different ning sites.

Other items that did not receive any votes are: Direct Mailing, Newsletters, Newspaper/magazine Ads, E-Zine, Trade Shows, Loyalty Programs and Public Speaking.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

Strategies To Improve Customer Service

11% Increase discounts to retain customers
27% Conduct sales win/loss analysis
37% Install CRM system to track performance
43% Compensate customer service employees for performance
47% Conduct phone interviews with selected customers
59% Conduct a customer survey

*Customer Satisfaction Business Impact Diagnosis, Gantry Group LLC, June 2009

Larson note: I am count thinking about the phone call I made to a major motel chain about a bad night’s sleep. I had called a 6 weeks earlier complaining about how I got up twice once at 10:30 and the second time at 12:30am about loud people in the hall. They sent me a beautiful form letter telling me how they franchised out their properties and they would investigate my report and thanking me for helping them improve. Then nothing. No follow up, no discounted to come back and try them again. NOTHING. So I called telling them again of my bad experience with their chain and how there form letter did nothing to make me feel good about them and how I would not be staying with their chain again and would tell my friends about my experience which I did and have verbally and though twitter. And low and behold a week later I received a 1 night’s free coupon. I feel better but am not really happy or satisfied after calling them twice. I feel the same way about Dr Pepper who still owes me a free coupon for a bottle after their Chinese Democracy promotion last November. I even called corporate and got the run around in their customer service department. Since November NO Dr. Pepper has passed though my lips.

I’m glad they can afford to lose a customer. Can you?

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

The Lead Generation Possibilities of SM

Given the roll of social media as a source of high-quality inbound sales leads, getting a good handle on the measurement is important as well as determining what your object is for being in Business SM. Getting all this aligned with your companies goals becomes critical. When you consider that these non-traditional channels are or can be powerful sources of insight, pass along rates, conversation and client/prospect interaction, more is at stake than you might realize.

As you advance into SM marketing, you need to find a way to capture your efforts in your CRM system and have them accessible to BOTH marketing and sales.

Lastly, determine the level of resources of people and time that you are able to invest and let THAT be the guide of your commitment. With the vast and growing array of social media opportunities that exist today, it is all too easy to get overwhelmed. Start slowing and selectively as you enter into these vastly uncharted waters of the ocean of Social Media Marketing for Business.

Larson note: Walk, jog, run. That is how a runner “learns” to run. So also should be your foray into Business SM. Keep your eyes focus on your goal(S), written goal is possible, and what you want to achieve. Anything is possible online so make it the best anything you can. SM can eat up your time resources faster than anything I have ever seen. With vast potential come great risk and astronomical rewards.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

The Week Ahead July 27 – July 31

Monday: June new home sales
Tuesday: July consumer confidence, May Case-Shiller home prices
Wednesday: June durable-goods orders, Federal Reserve beige book.
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims
Friday: 2nd Quarter GDP

Larson note: I promised you a good statistic week last week and bingo, you got it, heck we even got a an added bonus of a no hitter perfect game pitched by Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox’s. The Dow goes over 9000 and then Ford posted a profit!

The indicators were up in 7 out of 10 categories, including building permits, stock prices, manufactures new orders, and positive readings on jobs. Holding the indicator index down was consumer expectations, manufactures’’ orders of capital goods and the real money supply This was the 3rd consecutive upward reading on the economic indicators and we have yet to see any OBAMA stimulus money. I would expect more good news this week.

For Larson & Associates our focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month of July are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, and a Graphic Design Studio, and Printer (small and mid-sized) and looking to add more accounts in the eastern and pacific time zones. We are also looking for sales persons in New England, Texas and Southern California.

Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Thursday:
Friday: Saturday: Marathon Training Long Group Run
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> September 22-24 2009: Assembly Show Stevenson Convention Center
> September 29- October 1, 2009: Motivation show McCormick Place
> October 5-7, 2009, Parcel Forum 09 Hyatt Regency O’Hare
> October 22nd, 2009: 2009 Midwest Fall Business Expo Serb Hall Milwaukee, WI
> November 15-18, 2009 Fabtech Int. & AWS Welding Show McCormick Place, Chicago

Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Act Quickly For Higher Closings Ratios

The debate is whether to immediately act on leads or to nurture them before handing them off to the sales department. There are very few advantages to waiting to act on a lead at anytime but especially in a down economy.

Here are three quick reasons why calling leads immediately will better serve your company.

First, money comes to those who act quickly. Marketing and sales are like any other segment of business — opportunities must be acted or they dispear. When people are ready to buy, let them. If you wait to nurture the lead, you might lose the customer to your competitor. And even without your competitor, you do not want to give the customer the time or the chance to realize that they do not actually need your service. Yes customers do change their minds. You need to strike when the iron is hot — when the idea, product or service is fresh on the customer's mind.

Second, calling immediately shows your prospective client that you take initiative and are accountable. Some people might argue that acting on leads can appear desperate but in fact, the opposite is true. It shows that the client is important to your business and that you are and will be attentive to them. If you do not give your customer attention during the prospective stage, how can they count on you down the line? Clients' number one concern is timely response and accountability. Both come across impressively when you contact the customer immediately.

Third, in our current economic recession, money (or cash) is king. The budget that a customer may have set in place for your service may disappear by the time you decide to act. Call now and lock up the sale while the budget is still there or before it gets gobbled up by some other pressing concern..

Larson Note: When the customer is ready to buy, stand back and let them. If they made to contact the reach out to you, you would be a fool to drag your feet.


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Female Spending Habits: Now & In The Future

8 of of 10 women have changed the way they shop for clothing, accessories and shoes according to a survey form Retail Forward ShopperScape. This includes less spending overall, shopping less frequently and shopping at a lower level store. Yet less than 1/3rd of all women expect to adopt these changes permanently:

39% of female shoppers report spending less overall on clothing, accessories and shoes and 30% say that will remain thrifty once their personal financial situation improves.

37% of female shoppers are shopping less frequently and 28% say they will keep this same behavior in the future.

34% of shoppers are buying fewer items on impulse and 28% say they will keep that effort up into the future.

36% of shoppers report not buying clothing, accessories and shoes that seem “too expensive” and 30% say that will keep this behavior.

30% of shoppers are regularly monitoring the clearance rack of their favorite stores with 26% saying they will continue this practice.

Larson Note: Selling retail to woman? Take note of these trends if you aren’t already.


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

12 Flaws Of Leadership

1. Lack of energy.
2. Acceptance of mediocre performance your own and others.
3. Lack of clear vision and performance.
4. Poor judgment.
5. Don’t collaborate.
6. Don’t follow the standards that are set up for others.
7. Resist new ideas.
8. Don’t learn from mistakes.
9. Lack interpersonal skills.
10. Fail to develop the skills of others.
11. Don’t delegate.
12. Don’t challenge people.

Larson note: If you are a leader, lead yourself first so you gain the respect of those under you. If you are under someone open yourself up to the opportunity and challenges to grow into a leadership position. Learn as much as you can, push yourself to be the best you, you can be

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

Jobs for a New Economy

The U.S. Labor Department reported today that the number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance in the week ended July 11 fell to the lowest level since the first week of January, However, more than 6 million filed continuing claims in the week that ended July 4.While many Americans are struggling to find jobs, some of those who remain employed are looking for ways to supplement their incomes, which really isn't anything new, but is more difficult to do in the current economy. According to CareerBuilder's Q2 2009 Job Forecast, one-in-10 workers have taken on a second job in the last year to help make ends meet.In a recent survey completed in June, CareerBuilder asked more than 4,400 workers to share some of the more unconventional ways they've earned extra income. Examples cited by respondents include:

Used a portable propane burner to heat oil and sold catfish dinners on his front porch
Made Star Wars costumes for people
Donated blood plasma
Researched stories for a gossip columnist
Won money on a game show
Juggled chainsaws in a talent competition
Posed for an art class
Worked as a tarot card reader
Wrote a freelance article on Big Foot
Took notes in class for college students
Took items from the Lost & Found and sold them online
Gave people in the office haircuts
Tested recipes for a book
Worked as a movie extra
Participated in product testing for bandages
Played in Poker tournaments
Participated in university research studies

Larson note: Now you might wonder what the Larson plan would be?

One average salesperson is worth 16 accounts. 16 accounts are worth about 8 telesales people which need one AA and one direct mail coordinator that equals 11 people and those 11 people should equal a minimum of 16 jobs at our clients businesses in the first 2 months so 1 Good sales person is worth a minimum of 27 jobs, including their own. Now a good salesperson is worth twice that and a great salesperson? Don’t ask. But you might ask yourself how many jobs is a salesperson worth to your company? Remember, nothing happens till someone sells something.

Interested in how outsourcing your sales force can save and make you money. Give us a call. We will be happy to work it out using YOUR numbers.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

The Week Ahead July 20 – July 24

Monday: June leading economic indicators
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims, June existing home sales,
Friday: July University of Michigan consumer sentiment index

Larson note: Last week was sort of nice wasn’t it? New housing starts jumped more that expected in June with a very nice 14.4% jump. And this week, well its sort of like the song “The Eve of Destruction” “Its good new week, someone dropped a bomb somewhere contaminating the atmosphere and darkening the sky …” Think about it all around you the economy is in turmoil, business hurting, but you don’t need to. Is your business in the war zone or a safe zone?

This is going to be a good statistic week, so sit back and enjoy it. To keep your ship sailing on course, keep your eyes open and your face forward looking for opportunity in turmoil.

For Larson & Associates our focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month of July are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, and a Graphic Design Studio, and Printer (small and mid-sized) and looking to add more accounts in the eastern and pacific time zones. We are also looking for sales persons in New England, Texas and Southern California.

Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday: Marathon Training Long Group Run
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> September 22-24 2009: Assembly Show Stevenson Convention Center
> September 29- October 1, 2009: Motivation show McCormick Place
> October 5-7, 2009, Parcel Forum 09 Hyatt Regency O’Hare
> October 22nd, 2009: 2009 Midwest Fall Business Expo Serb Hall Milwaukee, WI
> November 15-18, 2009 Fabtech Int. & AWS Welding Show McCormick Place, Chicago

Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Happy Birthday Sponge Bob

Happy Birthday Sponge Bob. Today is Sponge Bob's 10th birthday. Yes that little guy in the square pants somehow made it to 10. And exactly what has he done? He has grown up into an almost $8 Billion Dollar “property” for Nickelodeon with over 700 license partners making him the most widely distributed franchise in MTV history

It is also interesting that Sponge Bob has the most watched sow on cable with over 30 of the top 100 shows in almost week in Nielsen’s cable ratings.

So what does Sponge Bob bring to the table?

$8 Billion in total retail sales
$813 Million in ad spending
76 Million people who watch Sponge Bob every quarter
700 Sponge Bob license partners worldwide
10 Number of states where Burger King franchisees reported Sponge Bob inflatables stolen
3,500 Wal-Mart Stores that did a Sponge Bob promotion in March

Larson note: A weird dorky looking guy in square pants, what can I say? Somehow he captivated us.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

Customer Retention

Customer acquisition is an investment, but profitability is built on customer retention. Keep the customers you have and spend the majority of your marketing and f2f time doing it.

In a survey of engineering, technical, manufacturing and industrial marketers at the beginning of this year, 13% indicated that customer retention is their primary marketing goal in 2009, up from just 5% from 2008. It is easier and more cost-effective to retain current customers than it is to find new ones. That my friend is a plain and simple fact! If you want customers to be loyal to you, you must be loyal to them. 


Customer service is the key. When customers have problems and questions, they want them solved and answered. The winning company makes it easy for customers to speak with a service representative — a real person, not an interactive voice response system — who has the authority to resolve a customer's issue, and yet we are paying these front line people $10.00 to $12.00 an hour, come on get real!

Some companies only see customer service as a cost center, which leads them to constantly look for ways to cut customer service costs. Customer service should be considered a customer retention initiative, or, in the best cases, a profit center of cross-selling and up-selling.


It is hard to foster customer loyalty if your customers forget about you. A great way to stay in touch is through e-mail. Establish a regular customer-only e-newsletter and send customers information that is relevant and helpful to them. While there's nothing wrong with promoting new products to customers, your main objective in customer retention e-mail should be education rather than promotion. If you help them do their job better, they're more likely to come to you when they need your products or services.



Larson note: My companies primary focus is on lead generation and new account acquisition. Yet I know that customer retention is more important. A bird in the bag is worth 2 in the tree? I would be changing that to be worth at least 4 or even a dozen when it comes down to customers. Never forget your customers. As a sales person and marketer it is your job to remember the customer not there job to remember you.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

Finding the C-suite Executive

CEOs and other high-ranking executives are some of the most active Internet search users at large companies, according to a study released last week by Google.

The survey, done in conjunction with Forbes Insights, gathered responses from 354 executives at US companies with annual sales of more than $1 billion. Of the senior executives interviewed for the survey, 92% said that searching online was a valuable source of business information, and more than half said they preferred to do the searching themselves, rather than delegating the work to others.

So what do they mean for direct marketers? With the right techniques, b-to-b marketers can directly target the elusive C-Suite executive

The Google study showed that 79% of interviewees use the Internet every day. C-level executives are conducting 6 or more searches a day to locate business information and are more likely to use search that frequently than lower-level executives. These executives can also be found engaging online in other ways: more than 41% are on Twitter, 53% blog regularly and 95% watch online videos.

Not only do you need to be on search because clearly that's where the C-suite is, but you might want to look at other Social Business Media avenues and make sure that if you have video on YouTube so that your messages are in front of them in video as well as print.

Mobile work tools like iPhones, and corner office promotions of younger execs that entered the work force with Internet access, are getting much of the credit for increased Web activity in the C-suite. Now it's up to marketers to take advantage of the audience that is being held captive at their screens.

Larson note: Maybe 5 -7 years ago age and the C-level executive would have kept them from accessing the intent like they do now. Get your Search Engine Submissions and Web site optimization in order. Use Twitter as a business tool not as a way to tell everyone what you’re having for lunch. Look at the numbers 789% of these guys are on the net.

Yet, this group also likes f2f and phone conversations unlike lower level executives, so of which rely completely on texting, emailing and other electric media this group know how to interact with people, sales and marketers in a belly to belly face to face way. My advice is to use electronic media as the door opener and traditional sales and marketing techniques to close the deal.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

Purchasing's Business Conditions Index spikes in July to near-expansion

After a one-month dip, Purchasing's Business Conditions Index shot up almost six points in July to 48, on a diffusion index where above 50 represents expansion.

Twenty-nine percent of buyers polled this month said their firms have seen an increase in orders in the past month, while another 39% said business was staying level. Similarly, the latest ISM Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) stands at 44.8 in June, having ticked up two points in the latest reading.

The report shows a demand to increase and factory utilization. A very good thing. With business a little better than expected, some manufacturers continue to raise prices, which is the wrong thing to be doing in this economy.

The second quarter was stronger than expected, but customers are beginning to slow down orders, probably due to the supply chain being replenished and uncertainty of how the economy will settle out going forward. Yet, quotes are finally turning into orders. Cars are finally starting to be produced at GM and Chrysler again.

And buyers are beginning to plan for an increase in orders. Purchasing's 90-Day Buying Plans Index continued up this month to 52.7, a two-point step up from a month ago, when the index made its first move above the expansion threshold in a year. The shorter-term buying plans this month still remain more cautious. Currently transportation is the only spend category above 50 on the list of 30-day buying plans.

*Source Purchasing.com


Larson Notes: Is this the bottom? I am really thinking yes, as more homes are bought and sold durable goods are bought and confidence is created. As we put construction workers to work, on roads, bridges and infrastructure (the best part of the Obama plan) we will see more people working and goods and services moving faster, thus cheaper. I do like what I am hearing and seeing despite being in July.



Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

The Week Ahead July 13 – July 17

Monday:
Tuesday: June retail sales, June producer price index
Wednesday: June consumer price index, June industrial production, May business inventories
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims
Friday: June housing starts

Larson note: Last week saw retail sales going down 4.9% but the trade gap narrowed to $26 billion on May.


With July 4th out of the way, maybe we can now start on making some sales and get this recovery in process. I was starting to see some nice action a week before the 4th before people went out on vacation and as last week progressed the same started. Already I have phone appointments for Monday and Tuesday. How does your week look?

For Larson & Associates our focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month of July are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, and a Graphic Design Studio, and Printer (small and mid-sized) and looking to add more accounts in the eastern and pacific time zones. We are also looking for sales persons in New England, Texas and Southern California.

Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday: Marathon Training 6:15amTuesday:
Wednesday: Marathon Training 6:15amThursday:
Friday: Saturday: Marathon Training Long Group Run
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> September 22-24 2009: Assembly Show Stevenson Convention Center
> September 29- October 1, 2009: Motivation show McCormick Place
> October 22nd, 2009: 2009 Midwest Fall Business Expo Serb Hall Milwaukee, WI
> November 15-18, 2009 Fabtech Int. & AWS Welding Show McCormick Place, Chicago

Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Using Employees For Social Media Marketing

1. Write what you know. If you are looking for your people to be active in SM keep them active in areas they can talk about and things they know about. If you stick to the areas you know your expertise will be brought out as well as the individual’s personality

2. Be Human. If one of the reasons for social media and social business communications is to “humanize” a company or brand do it. Don’t go off and take jargon or lots and lots of industry lingo. Talk to people in language they can understand.

3. The Difference of Transparent and Authentic. Does everything an employee says need to be heard by a customer? Being transparent and authentic does not mean you need to say everything that is floating through their mind.

4. Build An Army. Make SM part of peoples jobs. I don’t mean 1 persons job although if you are large enough having one designated person as the companies twitter, Facebook, MySpace, ning, MerchantCircle, ecademy, WeCanDo.BIZ etc, coordinator but in addition if you can make it a part of a lot of peoples jobs. Some of what makes Social Media work is mass. The more the merrier.


Larson note: It is surprising that more companies are not doing this but having employees speak for the company is a loss of control and some companies can’t accept that loss of control. I can only scratch my head n this. A salesperson speaks for the company so why not extend that out to all employees through a social Media context. The principle of communication is the same (basically). NO matter if you have a highly structured program of you sort of just “throw” your employees out into the SM world, the key is to get them out there talking about “good things” about the company

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

Metrics of User Generated Social Media

1. Volume. The number of comments, blog posts, tweets, links, about your brand your competition and your general field.

2. Sentiment. The positive, negative of indifferent consumer reaction to your brand or a topic, which can be measured by text analytics and natural language processing.

3. Emotion. The reasons that a consumer felt good, bad or indifferent that point to how you can resolve their problem or how your business can change and improve.

4. Topic/Issue. The context i.e. your product, customer service, advertising, competition, in which your brad is being discussed.

5. Source. Where is the conversation occurring? Twitter, a blog, a discussion/message board

6. Author. The people talking about your brand and their social media impact, i.e. the number of followers, readers, commenter’s.

7. Virality. The reach of your brand and relevant topics around your brand. I.e. how many people are reading, posting, linking and sharing

Larson note: How can you, do you measure Social Media? It is certainly in a state of chaos as anyone how engages in it well knows. Marketers have are aware that the rabbles of marketing are turning from a pull to a push model which is controlled but the public at large.

Today’s custom has not only learned to block out advertising and marketing but they are making their own voices heard in various marketing arenas that are out there. It’s not the marketers that need to find the value in and through the noise

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

Keeping Direct Mail Ecco & Cost Effective

Why is it that mailing files are in such poor shape, sometimes looking at 15-25% bad. Even the US Postal Service had to require that some form of Update be required on a mailing list every 95 days.

Once the files reach our printer or mailer verify what products are run on your file to either verity or clean up the records. Often nothing is done because the work is already done. And you do not what to lose your timing for your mailing. Plan it out in advance.

Review your mail plan and drop ship dates. Verify with the mailer how if any your tracking is going to be done in insures on time delivery to the destination facility and even perhaps the actual mail box.

Larson note: Mailing can be a very cost effective way to market or at least put into to you mix. Weave it in and out of a telesales campaign (our favorite way to do a mailing) or create a wave mailing campaign and you have one powerful way to marketing yourself. If you don’t have the staff or the connections to make it happen, call us. We make good things happen though mail.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

12 Principles that Drive Profitable Customer Relationships

Trying to figure out what customer relationship management really is? Well you're not alone. The term has been bounced around so much it remains a great source of confusion. And a popular business movement, now lost in a sea or wonderment.

What we are really talking about is building profitable customer relationships. From the days of the corner store, to the global enterprises of the future, the following 12 principles will remain the backbone of building a successful business. Each is both compelling on its own and intertwined with the others — there is no question, though, that customer relationship management as an integrated whole is greater than the sum of these parts.

1. Continuously Learn About Your Customers. This is the first principle of managing customer relationships because it is the most fundamental. Everything else follows. When you know your customers, you can make sound business decisions on developing relationships with them. Collect and analyze information about your customers to get to know them. Maintain your knowledge as you make and create customer profiles that fit with your business. But don’t stop there. Apply everything you know to building a customer valuation model. Knowing the value of customer relationships is essential for managing them wisely.

2. Handle Different Customers Differently. This idea has been repeated so many times that I wonder why I’m saying it. The power of this principle lies in the potential for optimizing the value of each customer relationship through differential treatment. Based on customer segmentation, It is important, however, not to differentiate customers simply because you can or because technology exists that can do so. Segment your customers sensibly. There are hidden costs to differentiation that must be weighed against the increased value that personalization can be expected to produce. Effective strategy ultimately seeks to optimize the value and "wallet share" of each customer segment.

3. Anticipate Customer Needs. Building strong customer relationships positively can alters the selling process in many ways. Knowledge of your customers presents new opportunities for making the right offer to the right person at the right time. Analysis of customer profiles, especially using powerful analytics tools, can provide insight about who buys what from you when. Contact management systems can detect cross-sell and upselling opportunities and act upon them by presenting suggestions to agents during service calls, dynamically responding to customer input or automatically presenting customized offers in Web pages and IVR systems. Even government and nonprofit organizations can use these principles to better fulfill their charters and anticipate the needs of their constituents.

4. Interact With Customers. Yes get out of your office and get f3f, belling to belly with your customers. Creating Desirable relationships is not one-way. Relationships result from interaction. Knowing your customers is just the first step. Using that knowledge to deepen relationships with customers whenever you interact with them. No matter how sophisticated the technology that organizations and customers use to communicate, your customers are still people and people appreciate being recognized, listened to and understood. Letting your customers know that you care enough about them to get to know them is an important part of managing the customer relationship.

5. Focus on Revenue and Retention. Unlike many other management initiatives, building strong customer relationships is not about cost savings — although that will often be the end result. Instead, the emphasis is to increase the revenue received from current customers and heighten the retention rate of valuable customers. A focus on customer relationships can require process changes that operational cost savings may well be realized. Talk time on customer calls may increase to make the most of each opportunity — it takes time to service customers well, to listen to them, to collect information about them and to up-sell and cross-sell. These steps can pay off. The return on investment for building customer relationships should not be expected from short term operational cost savings. Keep your focus on long term growth

6. Increase Value for Your Customers and the Organization. The bottom-line reason for building customer relationships is to increase value both for customer and the organization. There are many ways to deliver increased value, including being “easy to do business with,” creating efficiencies for your customers and making timely offers of products or services that perceptively address customer needs. Similarly, there are many ways to increase the value of your customer relationships, and the most fundamental of these appear in this list of key principles. When executed properly, building customer relationships is a “win-win” for all parties.

7. Present a Single Face Across Channels. One of the ways to create value for your customers is to simplify the ways that they deal with your organization. Take a holistic view of your customers and consolidate information from across the organization, regardless of geography, department, function or product line. When you have a complete picture of each customer’s relationship, you can design customer interaction processes from the customer’s perspective, thus increasing value and letting customers know that you know them.

8. Enable Information Sharing and Interaction Across the Organization. Building customer relationships requires all parts of an organization, not just the call center, sales department or customer service personnel. It is both a requirement and a benefit that organizations improve their internal communication processes. The only way to develop a comprehensive view of each customer’s relationship with the organization is with the full participation of every part of the organization. This requires strong support from top management and all the way down the line. As the central point of contact with customers, sales people and the call center has a vested interest in driving the development of organization wide interaction processes.

9. Create Business Rules to Drive Decisions. Business rules codify and automate processes, specifying what should happen in specific situations, thus enabling both differentiated customer treatment and automation. Developing organizationwide business rules is a huge task, and how well it is done directly affects your success in building customer relationships. Business rules define the ways that the strategy is executed. Make your rules proactive to let your front line people be heros to your customers

10. Empower Employees with Information and Training. Capable desktop tools may be the most visible technological feature of customer relationship. Just as the cockpit of an airplane displays all the information a pilot needs to fly in any condition, the contact management screen should pull together cleanly and clearly all that the organization knows about its relationship with that customer. Business rules should dynamically change that screen to support and guide the agent in optimizing the customer relationship. Empowerment is a key principle, because no set of business rules can or should fully anticipate every conceivable situation: Sales people and agents need training, information and support offered by a business’s rules so that they can make good sound decisions that are consistent with the organization’s strategy.

11. Retain the Right Customers. Have you ever fired a customer? One of the truisms associated with customer relationship management is that it is cheaper to keep a customer than to go out and find a new one, but this idea can be taken a step further. In order to maximize value, organizations should focus on retaining valuable customers, not necessarily all customers. Be warned, however, that misapplication of this principle can be dangerous. Mistreating “low value” customers, even if you are losing money on them, is hard to justify in the court of public opinion (which is where your future high-value customers are sitting).

12. Remember That Cultivating Customer Relationships is a Way of Doing Business. These efforts go beyond tools, techniques, rules or programs. Building customer relationships is about the way you do business. It requires participation and hard work by people throughout the entire organization. If done right, the work never ends. Results from these efforts should be constantly fed back into the process to continuously refine business rules, marketing efforts and information systems.


Larson note: This is a Proven Principles for Success. You can trust these principles. You can bank on these principles. They have staying power, even in today’s fast-changing economy. They were not a recent discovery nor are they going to fade away. Build them into your strategy and operational plans. and you will be well-positioned for the changes ahead.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

The Week Ahead July 6 – July 10

Monday: June institute for supply management services index
Tuesday:
Wednesday: May consumer credit
Thursday: May wholesale inventories, Weekly initial jobless claims
Friday: May trade balance

Larson note: Are we at the bottom of this recession yet? I think so but it is after all summer. Last week saw payrolls drop, unemployment continue to climb with real unemployment sitting at over 16%.

We noticed an uptick in interest in our outgoing telesales work. A very good sign that says that companies are looking at plans and ideas to start to expand their or businesses rather than sit tight and wait out the rest to the recession. Now I will grant you this is totally unscientific, but to us and our clients it says the business world is starting to open up. Now if this interest translates into sales, that is where the rubber starts to mean the road. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting show.

For Larson & Associates our focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month of July are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, and a Graphic Design Studio, and Printer (small and mid-sized) and looking to add more accounts in the eastern and pacific time zones. We are also looking for sales persons in New England, Texas and Southern California.

Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday: Marathon Training 6:15amTuesday: Sales appointments
Wednesday: Marathon Training 6:15amThursday: No frills 5k SC race 6:30 PM
Friday: Saturday: Marathon Training Long Group Run
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> September 22-24 2009: Assembly Show Stevenson Convention Center
> September 29- October 1, 2009: Motivation show McCormick Place
> October 22nd, 2009: 2009 Midwest Fall Business Expo Serb Hall Milwaukee, WI
> November 15-18, 2009 Fabtech Int. & AWS Welding Show McCormick Place, Chicago

Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Favorite SM Site

In a totally Unscientific poll the rankings of favorite SM sites starts to come into view out of 16 votes cast

Ning(s) 19% - 3 votes
MerchantCircle 6% 1 vote
Facebook 13% 2 votes
LinkedIn 6% 1 vote
Twitter 57% 9 votes

http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1738706/?view=results

Larson note: I reluctanly put twitter on the list because it seemed people want to call it a Social Media (Networking site). I don’t know if I would, but then, what do I know. Nings seem to be popular in this sample but I see Facebook making some major inroads in the last month. Heck I ever reluctantly put up a Facebook page. Now the big question is, not that you are using SM for your business is it, can it make you any money?

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

How fast to send to New Subscribers for email

When you get a new subscriber to your email list, what should you sent them, how fast and how often?

The early stage of the email relationship is very important between you and the recipient. You may never get another chance like this one to have the big of an impact with the subscriber. Those first messages you send should be to develop a one on one relationship at the very start.

Start out by an introduction to your email program so they know what to expect and how it works. You want them to know what to expect and how to navigate any information they will receive form you only goes to create a close bond of trust.

Larson note: If they know they can trust you and your emailing you will not go in the spam final and get lost in the shuffle. And more important you will get read!


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is more that putting up a web site, more that putting in a search engine submission to the 1000 of sites and directories. But you have a site, now you want it to pull in some hits that lead to customers.

Your website the keystone to your online internet marketing. More times than not it is an underused asset sitting out there waiting to be found.

First make it easy for customers to find exactly what they want to find on your site. This might mean sending them to a landing page rather than your home page on the first hit.

Next, create a “call to action”. Getting prospects to the right page is only half the battle. Next you wed to show them what to do. This can be anything from a big buy button, of a linked to a white paper or subscribe to an ezine.

Finally keep track of your success. If you don’t track your success the previous two thoughts won’t really do you much good. I you aren’t capturing conversion data you won’t know what programs are working and which ones aren’t.

Larson note: Internet is not about clicks, it’s about sales. Plain and simple. That is unless your web site is up there for your purely information and vanity.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. No sales staff? Use us as your complete marketing/sales department and take your sales city, regional, nationwide.