Larson & Associates Receives 2019 Best of Palatine Award Telemarketing Service category

PALATINE November 25, 2019 -- Larson & Associates has been selected for the 2019 

Best of Palatine Award in the Telemarketing Service category by the Palatine Award Program.


Each year, the Palatine Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Palatine area a great place to live, work and play.


Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2019 Palatine Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Palatine Award Program and data provided by third parties.

About Palatine Award Program

The Palatine Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Palatine area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.


The Palatine Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community's contributions to the U.S. economy.


SOURCE: Palatine Award Program

A Quick View Of Some Of Our Services

Make The 4th Quarter Work To The Maximum!

Is It Time To Make Your Move? At this time of the year many of our clients add hours or start a campaign in the 4th and 1st quarters. With our trade showwork every year at this time, if you are thinking of starting a campaign or adding hours to your current campaign, contact us today! These two quarters are great times to prospect! And we don't want you left out. Here is a quick view of some of our services: Appointment Setting We get you actual sit down meetings with the prospects you are looking to meet! Lists are provided Inside Sales We can work your house accounts, dormant accounts, or smaller accounts for you; freeing up your strong sales people to be out closing! Data Cleansing Customer Surveys Association and Trade show work Membership Drives Renewal Calls Trade show Registrations Prospecting for exhibitors or sponsors Fill seminar seats If you want to finish the year strong, start 2020 strong, increase your current amount of weekly hours, or start a new campaign, CONTACT US TODAY! Give me a call at 847-991-1294, and we will get you started!

SMART COMPANIES KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THEIR AUDIENCE

Once you recognize the need for change, you need to do something about it. Immediately!

So What Direction Are You Headed? Once you recognize the need for change, you need to do something about it, right? Otherwise, it’s of no benefit at all. But you can’t just start running down any path to victory you find. After all, what if you are heading in the wrong direction? That’s why you need understand to your targeted niche. In the world of business, that starts with knowing and understanding your audience. NICHE MATTERS A niche is the most important business asset to your company! Above anything else, the one thing you need to protect at all costs is your niche dominance. If a piece of equipment breaks down, your best employee quits, or a competitor moves in across the street, you know they can refocus, adjust and rebuild. But, if you lose your niche focus, you could lose your business. If you think like this and view your audience as the one entity, you will also make better decisions. You’ll begin to view every decision through the lens of “How will this affect my niche?” For example, if a piece of equipment breaks down and creates a subpar part or an employee is speaking to customers poorly, you can and will address it. If you don’t, these could cause you to lose your niche. A niche guides your business direction. Every business owner, understands that people are more than willing to share their opinion about a product or service. The thing you need to determined is: whose voice they are listening to. By knowing and understanding your niche, you know who to pay attention to and who you can ignore because they’re not a part of your target market. Smart companies realize that knowing their niche will save you time, effort, and money because you’re not wasting these precious resources on people who would never buy from you anyway. As Seth Godin says, “Not everyone is your customer. The key to failure is trying to please everyone.” Do You Know Who Your Niche Is? Niche marketing lets you provide customers with products and services they need. By focusing on a niche you end up having an upper hand over the competition because of your niche specific understanding with the perfect products and services. If you are lost in finding your niche give me a call: 1st we learn about your business 2nd we take your list or build you a list of potential customers 3rd we market you into those prospects and hand over to you organized, prequalified people, and companies

Copyright © 2019 Larson & Associates, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Larson & Associates 678 North Eagle Lane   Suite 201 Palatine IL 60007 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates.ws www.larsonassociates.ws

SMART COMPANIES PLAN FOR CHANGE

SMART COMPANIES ANTICIPATE CHANGE

The first step smart companies, all companies need to do is recognize the need for change.   While simply recognizing that need might sound “too easy,” the truth is that there are many in the world today who have yet to take even this first step. Those smart companies take the time to assess things such as: How has my business changed in the last year? What new things am I trying? How am I growing? If you struggle to come up with answers to those questions, you’re not alone. Many businesses hold fast to this idea that doing the same things over and over again will yield different results. No you and I both know you will only get the same results you have always gotten.. So are their answers? Yes but remember it takes changing things and change is hard. It brings with it periods of uncertainty, of doubt, and it seems to inflame even the tiniest of insecurities. But, once those smart companies learned to anticipate and embrace the changes necessary to grow their businesses, they were better (and most likely bigger) for it. If your marketing has stalled out maybe its time to call Larson & Associates In Chicago we have a saying "I got a guy"  In the world of Business to Business marketing you can now say "I got a guy" . 847-991-1294 Make the call to get the marketing guy to make the changes you need, today.

Only 15 More And Then They Are Gone

Someone Purchased One! List, Content Phone The Whole Deal. A Plan That Can Net You 100% ROI!  If you are a small to mid-sized company and happy with the results you are getting out of your current marketing campaign, great! But if you're like 9 of 10 businesses, doing what I call fluff and puff marketing or branding and not highly targeted direct response marketing, keep reading. For every $1.00 you are spending on marketing if you are not getting back back 100% to 2000% (did I really say 2000%?) back from your marketing you really need to be using us. If I were to sit down with you over a nice hot cup of coffee and ask you where your customers come from or what is the cost of each new customer, and how did you get them, could you tell me? Was it an email, a direct mail piece or social media or that hard working sales person walking door to door passing out business cards? The whole idea came about at Jim Hugh's One More Customer Networking event over in Carpentersville IL. He has one up in Island Lake IL but this knock on the side of my head happened at the one in Carpentersville. I have been a la cartingmy services like every other marketing company and feeling I could be serving my customers much better if I could just roll all the key elements all into one program so a person or company could afford what actually works from list procurementto direct mail to content writing to email blasts to teleprospecting to blogging. I did that and you get everything for just $2019 a month.  So, while the podcast rolled on I spread out my napkin, a technique I learned at Ricardo's (all you Chicago Advertising People should remember Ricardo's the place on Rush Street that it's outdoor tables overlooked a seedy part of the Near North Side) and wrote out this entire plan on one little white napkin. Really I worked out a million dollar marketing plan on a napkin. I have found that if a plan is larger than a napkin it is too complicated to put into action and nothing ends up happening.  The 11 Rules For 2019 1. You will only market to the best kind of customers for your business! 2. Each marketing piece will have a call to action! 3. There will always be a reason to buy NOW! 4. There will be clear, simple instructions. 5. Everything. Every dollar will be tracked, analyzed, measured and be held accountable. 6. If branding happens it will not be at the expense of the Direct Response message. 7. There will be follow-up, follow-up and more follow-up. 8. There will be a strong call to action in all copy. 9. It might look a little like mail order advertising. 10. Results Rule (say that 100 times!) 11. Good design takes a back seat to copy that sells! So what are you waiting for? Really? Vincent and I are sitting drinking a cup of coffee waiting to manage your plan like a conductor in front of an orchestra Bruce and Rob are looking over compiled lists, ready to do a list sort for your ideal customer. Vicky is sipping tea (yes I have a tea drinker in the company can you believe that?) ready to turn copy into pointed message of action. Elizabeth, Janice, Connie and Brenda, those darlings of the phone lines, all have open time to be teleprospecting for you. There is just 1 problem We are only taking on 16 of these projects, well now only 15 because someone bought one and when they are taken they are gone! And we will not compete against ourselves so in any given market area we will not, I repeat weWILL NOT take on competing companies. So call right now before your competition does. Just phone 847-991-1294 or email to howard@larsonassociates.ws NOW and just say 2019.  Larson & Associates Making Good Companies Great and Great Companies Even Better

You Really Want To Pay Me $2019

This Is About the 2019 Marketing Plan That Can Net You 100% ROI!  If you are a small to mid-sized company and happy with the results you are getting out of your current marketing campaign, great! But if you're like 9 of 10 businesses, doing what I call fluff and puff marketing or branding and not highly targeted direct response marketing, keep reading. For every $1.00 you are spending on marketing if you are not getting back back 100% to 2000% (did I really say 2000%?) back from your marketing you really need to be using us. If I were to sit down with you over a nice hot cup of coffee and ask you where your customers come from or what is the cost of each new customer, and how did you get them, could you tell me? Was it an email, a direct mail piece or social media or that hard working sales person walking door to door passing out business cards? The whole idea came about at Jim Hugh's One More Customer Networking event over in Carpentersville IL. He has one up in Island Lake IL but this knock on the side of my head happened at the one in Carpentersville. I have been a la cartingmy services like every other marketing company and feeling I could be serving my customers much better if I could just roll all the key elements all into one program so a person or company could afford what actually works from list procurementto direct mail to content writing to email blasts to teleprospecting to blogging. I did that and you get everything for just $2019 a month.  So, while the podcast rolled on I spread out my napkin, a technique I learned at Ricardo's (all you Chicago Advertising People should remember Ricardo's the place on Rush Street that it's outdoor tables overlooked a seedy part of the Near North Side) and wrote out this entire plan on one little white napkin. Really I worked out a million dollar marketing plan on a napkin. I have found that if a plan is larger than a napkin it is too complicated to put into action and nothing ends up happening.  The 11 Rules For 2019 1. You will only market to the best kind of customers for your business! 2. Each marketing piece will have a call to action! 3. There will always be a reason to buy NOW! 4. There will be clear, simple instructions. 5. Everything. Every dollar will be tracked, analyzed, measured and be held accountable. 6. If branding happens it will not be at the expense of the Direct Response message. 7. There will be follow-up, follow-up and more follow-up. 8. There will be a strong call to action in all copy. 9. It might look a little like mail order advertising. 10. Results Rule (say that 100 times!) 11. Good design takes a back seat to copy that sells!   So what are you waiting for? Really? Vincent and I are sitting drinking a cup of coffee waiting to manage your plan like a conductor in front of an orchestra Bruce and Rob are looking over compiled lists, ready to do a list sort for your ideal customer. Vicky is sipping tea (yes I have a tea drinker in the company can you believe that?) ready to turn copy into pointed message of action. Elizabeth, Janice, Connie and Brenda, those darlings of the phone lines, all have open time to be teleprospecting for you. There is just 1 problem We are only taking on 16 of these projects when they are taken they are gone!And we will not compete against ourselves so in any given market area we will not, I repeat we WILL NOT take on competing companies. So call right now before your competition does. Just phone 847-991-1294 or email to howard@larsonassociates.ws NOW and just say 2019.    Larson & Associates Making Good Companies Great and Great Companies Even Better

The 2019 Marketing Plan

Tired of Marketing That Does Not Work? You're not alone. With so many different options available, it’s hard to decide when, where and how to advertise to get the best return-on-investment. Yes money not clicks and likes. I am talking about marketing as a real tool to grow your business to get a response. Not a look. Not a like. Not a click. But a sale!   NOW For only $2019 a month  You can get new customers!  This is a plan that works. It is not new but uses new elements in marketing you might not be aware of. It is process of taking key elements in marketing and weave them in and out. The big guys use them so why not you?   Email Marketing Direct Mail Content / Blog Management Teleprospecting Marketing has many doors. But which door do you open and when? What order do you open the doors and how many times do you need to go thou the door on the right of the door on the left to attract customers?   We Know! Larson & Associates can help you to design and develop a unique campaign,  and run it for only $2019 a month. We have been doing this for over 44 years. Larson & Associate’s knowledgeable project management take your company through each step of the way. Larson & Associates Direct Marketing services including teleprospecting, direct mail, promotional marketing, email blast and fulfillment services. Making Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better Larson & Associates 679 N Eagle Lane    Suite 201 Palatine IL 60067 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates.ws

The Way For Double Digit Business Growth

Double Digit Growth Built Thru Multi-channel target marketing! Social Prospecting + Outbound Prospecting = A Powerful Combination There are 1440 minutes per day…and there are approximately: 1,209,600 new data producing social media users each day. 656 million tweets per day! More than 4 million hours of content uploaded to Youtube every day, with users watching 5.97 billion hours of Youtube videos each day. There is the problem facing you. Content, content, content. So what can you do? Combat it with Consistency, consistence, consistency. Familiarity breeds opens and opens are the start to reading. Reading brings you to the start understanding. And reading is the start to understanding. Andunderstanding makes knowledgeable customers. So yes it might be getting harder to stand out from the crowd  (which is why the social channels are making so much money selling sponsored posts). If you are starting from scratch with no followers or a very small audience on the social platforms like Linkedln, Twitter, Brandergy or a Facebook business page it can take from six months to two years to create enough traction to pull prospects in to you. (fyi Larson & Associates has a follower growing plan to help fast track this for you) That does not mean you should not be doing a targeted, narrowly focused social selling strategy to fit in with your targeted, narrowly focused marketing plan. The more nitch directed you are the more positive your results will be. It does not mean it will require money but it might require more effort to get a to get the kind of marketing traction you need to get a positive return on your investment. So what’s a poor marketing guy going to do?  Combine inbound and outbound prospecting strategies and get double focus with your planning Outbound prospecting and inbound social prospecting are natural partners. Social selling impacts familiarity, is an excellent tool for prospect research and awareness, and will create inbound leads even in the business to business setting. It is, however, a long-term, passive strategy that requires patience and is unlikely to produce immediate results or to ever scale to a size that generates enough inbound leads to allow you to reach your sales and income goals. Outbound prospecting, on the other hand, is an active approach designed to fill the pipe line by engaging prospects in person, by phone, by e-mail, by direct mail, through social inboxes, or by text. It is the art of interrupting your prospect's day, opening a conversation in 15 seconds, setting an appointment, or gathering information. When combined with social prospecting, outbound becomes enormously more powerful. The combined benefits include: •             Building familiarity, which increases the probability of engagement •             More targeted prospecting lists focused on the highest-qualified prospects and individual buyers •             Leveraging triggers to open buying needs at just the right time •             Nurturing and educating prospects ahead of expected or projected buying time •             Research to gain contact information •             Influence the buying process as a coach •             Qualifying and self-qualifying •             Refining and making your outbound -prospecting message relevant                 Once again, it comes back to balance—balancing your prospecting channels, methodologies, and techniques to be efficient and effective with your scarcest resource: time. Making Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better   Larson & Associates 679 N Eagle Lane    Suite 201 Palatine IL 60067 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates.ws

Be The Guy And Sell For Profit

How do you sell, price or service? When going after new clients selling on service alone can can be a hard nut to crack. What do you or can you say that everyone else is not saying? If you don't have a really good hook, you'll be the one yanked off the stage. So is there a way to Compete on Service, Not Price?   I say yes!   Selling by service alone is hard work. What do you or what can you lead in with that everyone else is not saying? Can you pass the "So What?" test? Before you ever give your pitch or fancy Power Point presentation ask yourself So What? If it was me I and I were to tell you: I've been in business for 44 years. You would say So what? I have helped thousands of people succeed. So what? We have great team of people working here. So what? Get the point?    Now ask yourself what you want to be doing. Maybe you are happy selling for pennies on the dollar just to stay busy. If your a printer do you sell at cost just to keep the presses rolling? The problem is when you get busy they still want your low pricing and if you don't the next very hungry salesperson or company will undercut you. That is unless you are THE GUY! When you are THE GUY they will not move your competition on price alone because you are part of their team. They will stay for your knowledge. They will stay for your service. They will stay to keep you part of their team. Are you competing by selling at a lower price or are you getting deserved high profit margins?  That's a tough assignment. My answer is to ask you: What if you mixed in diagnosing and then solving customer problems as an advisor as a way to earn more sales and to differentiate yourself? And what if you grew long-term high profit sales by translating customers' needs to fulfillment from you as an advisor first and a sales person second?  Imagine educating customers to make the right decision. Can't you see yourself as the resource guy. Transforming yourself into the person they turn when they need advice.  Sure you can. The hard thing is to BE that person all the time. You have to actually put the customer 1st , all the time, every time. Do you think that might just create even more demand for your products and services? Can you imagine helping customers improve their outcomes because of you? Coming up with solutions to the problems that keep them up at night. Think of the gratitude. Think of what they will do when you say, “Yes that I can do for you!” You think they will believe you? Do you think they will need "3 quotes"? Do you think they will ask you to sharpen the pencil? No because you have become THE GUY or do you say THE GAL?   They might just start to discover new reasons to do more business with you? Are you now better than your competitors? I think you know the answer.   For instance, let's say you sell marketing services. Think about having classes to teach customers how to improve their marketing focus and in doing so makes them better and more profitable. Who do you think is the person they are going to reach out to when the hard lifting in marketing starts? You guessed it. In this case me.   You design the curriculum to teach your methods to passionate buyers everything from how to redesign their content strategy using email blasting to direct mail, to helping companies to build a multi-targeted multi-channel plan built for growth, created to get over a 38% better ROI. Consider your own business and how powerful it would be to define what your customers should know, at what pace, and why. Imagine being that close to the person who makes the decisions, and if they are already hungry to get better at what they need to do in your area of expertise? OMG! Think of the power but remember with power comes responsibility. Responsibility to do what is right for the customer even when they would or might follow you blindly.   Do you sell insurance? Is your opening line to a prospect that you to a FREE analysis of there current policy. Really? Can you get much more lame that that? You and a thousand other agents in the city want to do that. Say that and you will never be THE GUY. Let’s pretend you sell automated CRM software. You are up there doing your thing teaching customers all about the ins and outs of how to organize and run an effective sales program with CRM software. Your curriculum includes teaching customers how to write good sales letters then work the calendar for scheduled call backs. Even if you're selling products like painted canvas for needle pointing or replacement batteries for sump pumps, think about how you can bring out the educational aspects of your product, and think about how you can do this as a long term (marketing) project. Clients need continued advice and education and how they could benefit from continuous informational interactions with you. Remember education is good but don’t waste their time.  So sit down with a cup of coffee (or do you do tea) and think in terms of your business. What are the little-known facts, tricks and tips of information that you may take for granted but customers might find empowering and use? Write them down and ask yourself, "What are the three major obstacles preventing our customers from selling more to their customers? This question works for my company, you have to think of a specific question for your industry.  How can you be helping them address the challenges that from your expertise day in and day out are able to educate, help and when necessary put into action. Making Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better Should we be helping you? We know and understand business to business marketing plans weaving together. emails, direct mail, trade show, content development and blogging and how to put it all together and cement it up tight with a follow-up phone call. If you need targeted lead generation marketing help I would be happy to talk about our approach. What we do and how we do it is not for everyone.  If you want to be great or you only want to be better than great we are  YOUR GUY Larson & Associates 678 N. Eagle Land     Suite 201 Palatine IL 60067 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates.ws www.larsonassociates.ws

Get Stronger Sales In 2019 Starting Today

Do You Have A Plan Of Action For 2019? If you are like almost all businesses, marketing is an afterthought. Leads come in. Sales happen and life is good. That is, until they don’t. For over 43 years, Larson & Associates has helped businesses just like yours grow into the companies they want, selling millions of products and services. Get a strong start for 2019 with great a marketing plan and execution. Our team will: Generate New Customers Increase Repeat Business Improve Your Customer's Experience Converted More Sales You are unique, so should your plan be. We can craft a marketing plan for your unique business and not give you a cookie cutter off the shelf plan that was used for Joes Salvage Yard or Dorothy’s Dinner.  Please reply to this email, and give me 22 minutes of your time. Thant right 22 minutes to interview you so I can go back to my cave with my cohorts in crime and figure out what you need to be doing to take you to the next level for you and your business. Larson & Associates Making good businesses great and great businesses even better Thank you, Howard Larson Larson & Associates 678 N Eagle Lane Suite 201 Palatine IL 60067 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates