Is Your Elevator Pitch Any Good?

Do you have the Perfect Elevator Pitch?

Can you tell what you do in a concise compelling way? Most people can't. If you can say what you do in 25 words try again. So here is how to make your Elevator Pitch efficient and effective.

The classic elevator pitch. It's a major challenge that every sales person, marketer, and entrepreneur must do. The concept is really quite simple: all you need to do is communicate what you do in the time it takes to ride an elevator from ground level until the door opens and you have to leave. Now we are not talking Willis Tower here. We are talking about your normal building that gives you 55 seconds or less. You only have about 55 seconds to get in and get out and leave a powerful message with enough of a hook to get someone to continue the conversation after exiting, ask for your business card or have a catch praise they will not forget. At Larson & Associates I have 2, “We make good businesses great and great businesses even better!” AND “We bother people at lunch not at dinner.”

Everyone needs a simple and concise way to explain what they do. It is one of the keys to successfully prospecting, networking, events, chance meetings and parties for getting new business. Unfortunately most people explain themselves comes off self indulgent and boring resulting in wasted conversations and fruitless encounters or what they say is so dumb and cute no one is really going to take it serious.

Here is the typical wrong way:

Hi, my name is Joe Smith and I am the CEO of ABC Widgets. We help companies grow and we give great customer service. Do you have any widget needs?

The people on the receiving end may or may not think they need blue #2 widgets. Most of the time they are only thinking about what they are going to say to you.  In this pitch there is nothing to compelling in this pitch to further a conversation. The only hope you have to continue the conversation is the hope they have for you want to buy what they are offering.

A powerful elevator pitch, needs to communicate a compelling value proposition that attracts customers to buy that in a nut shell fills a need gives them a fast reason they will love to buy or a fear if they don’t buy they will have great pain in their lives.  If your working a room this will help you efficiently weed through a large group of people, stopping only for meaningful conversations with real potential customers. Here is a step-by-step process on how it's done:

Step 1--Connect with Empathy: Create a specific pain statement or a major pleasure statement for the prospect you want to have a conversation with. Remember you only want to talk to people who are willing to pay for the problems you solve not everyone in the room. Don’t waste your time:



Say you want to work with companies with revenue over $5,000,000 who need a just-in-time manufacturer of blue widgets #2, and they are only a $1,000,000 dollar company; let the thing alone the right?

If the person does not meet your target move on. I once knew a guy that would only sell typesetting to ad agencies on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. If your ad agency was on Wabash or Wacker Drive, forget it he would not call on you. He would not call on you if you were an agency that his best friend worked at. You did not meet his target. If the person you’re talking too doesn’t fit or know someone who does, they can answer no and you can move on, and the good news is you have only spent less than 20 seconds.  But if their company is suffering from the issue you targeted or what you offer is such a good feel they can’t help themselves and they fit your target, you'll be actually see their faces drop as they identify with the pain of get a big smile when they have the need too’s or the pleasure your service will bring them.  Now you immediately look smart and empathetic as they affirm that the picture you painted is terrible and frustrating or will bring them the ultimate joy of their lives. You have gained their attention.

Step 2--Offer an Objective Solution: Now you got your prospect not only listening but they just got vulnerable. They are thinking you might be pretty smart and insightful. Don't prove them wrong by trying to close. Continue showing them how smart you are by offering up an objective solution to their issues. You might try something like “Wouldn't it be great if ...”?

For example: Wouldn't it be great if there were a company that could design and produce blue widgets #2 and deliver “just-in-time” that makes brings down your warehouse costs and storage needs and lets you be more efficient and lets your salespeople close more deals?

If people don't respond positively to this statement then they weren't really connecting in Step 1 and you can move on having only wasted 45 seconds total now. Those who you have connected with should be now hanging on every word and nodding their heads, thankful that someone finally gets their frustration or understands what brings them great joy.

Step 3--Provide Differentiation: You are 90% there. The best way to close is by not closing but by by explaining why only you are the best choice to provide the very solution they need. You have to be ready with a couple of points that will truly differentiate you from your competition. Note that "Experience" or "Great Customer Service" doesn’t cut it. Everyone has great experience and fantastic customer service. Using the kinds of things everyone else says won't make you stand out since all of your competitors claim the exact same even if it's not true. To have a true differentiator you need something your competitor can't do or won't do without great effort or expense.

Here's the finish: My company uses proven project management and internal design with the tightest turn times in the industry with online or phone ordering systems designed to match your internal requirements to deliver blue #2 widget to your specifications on your dock when you need them every time!   If you would like Ill email you a link to our company web site.

If they say no, you only wasted 1 minute 17 seconds. If they say yes, you have succeeded in starting not just a conversation but a targeted prospect that has a high degree of success to be doing business with.



Now just in case you missed it, the last line is incredibly important because it gives you permission to get and use their email and continue the relationship. Even if you aren't a writer, have content like white papers, videos or blog posts ready to email and support your pitch as promised. As Hank Trisler says: “People buy on emotion and justify with facts.”

Larson Notes & Satire:  Easy and hard to get what you need to say into tight compact words. Work on it, test it, and practice it. And as you practice it, you will get better till it becomes natural.

And if you want your business to be more and have more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

Do You Blog?

It’s a fact if you want to increase your Google rankings blogging is one of those magical keys.

Right now only 40% of companies out there are use blogs for marketing purposes, is your competition a blogger?

With over 80% of all people rating a Blog as a useful tool in a company’s marketing attack why of why are blogs given such a low priority in a company’s marketing mix?

What if your web site through an organic key word search got a 4 figure hit increase? Yes I’m talking over 1000% increase in organic traffic on your web site! What if you got 3000% or 4000%? How many more eyes would that be?

So why aren’t you blogging? The most common reasons people tell us they are not using this powerful tool are:
I am not a writer.
I don’t know what to blog about.
No one is going to read my blog.
I don’t have the time and resources to keep a blog updated.
I (just) don’t have a blog page

Don't have a blog? 
No problem, we can create a blog for you.
Here are some features of our Blogging Services and Marketing that we offer:
> We Create & Maintain your Blog for You
> We promote the blog to RSS Feed Directories for Greater Visibility
> Weekly – 400 minimum Word Blog Posting - Written and Promoted
> Blog Pinging to the top blog directories & search engines after each blog post
> All blog content is social bookmarked
> Put links in your Blog to point to pages on your web site
> Content written to use your Keywords
> Get greater web site exposure and a constant stream of keyword targeted traffic
> Build more back links to your site
> Boost your search engine ranking

Larson Notes & Satire:  If you don’t, can’t or just plain don’t want to write a blog we can be helping. Don’t be kidding yourself content is King and fresh content is Emperor. Weekly posting might not seem like a lot but after a year that is 52 posts. Do 2 a week and that is 104 more content pages then your competition. And if your competition is standing still doing nothing you are way far out in front of the race to top ranking.

And if you want your business to be more and have more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

Save Money By Outsourcing

As an entrepreneur it is a very normal and natural want to do everything yourself. I mean it’s your baby. You started it, you’re building it, you must know what is best. But if you do all the work yourself you are saving money? Are you getting the best effort and talent in targeted areas of your business? The question is, could someone be doing a better job for you?

If you’re like a lot of entrepreneurs or small business people when we first start out, you might be forced to do everything yourself because of “sweat equity”. Money is not there to do what needs to be done so, you do it. But there comes a time when you need to either delegate or outsource.

Once you get to this point in your businesses life you have to have a reality check and realize that to do everything yourself is not practical and there are some things you are really not qualified to do.

Lucky for you that almost anything you need can not only be outsourced but there are able, willing experts out there to do the work. So you have lots of choices of not just want to outsource but who to outsource to.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the average small business owner spends up to 40% of his or her time on routine administrative tasks. Constantly working on non revenue-producing tasks that could be more productively and cost-effectively performed by a highly skilled, knowledgeable assistant is losing your business significant income.

Steps in determining what to outsource

Step 1: Decide what tasks are taking up your time or that you are not qualified to do, such as web promotion, social media marketing, bookkeeping, janitorial, etc.

Step 2: Find out how much time you are putting into each task.

Step 3: Determine what you would do with the time that you would save by outsourcing.

Step 4: Determine the tasks which should or cannot be outsourced or the things that you are most qualified to do. Not everything can be outsourced.

Step 5: Prioritize every task. When you outsource, don’t give too much responsibility the first time you unless you know them or they come very highly recommended from a trusted friend.

Step 6: Now assuming you certain tasks you are going to have someone do for you, write a task list of what you expect to have accomplished either on a daily or weekly basis.

When you get to that point in your businesses growth when you need to outsource and you will find your business able to grow even faster.

Call Me, Howard Larson, now, at 847-991-1294, for a free consultation.

If results are what you need and expect contact us today. We do what others only promise.

Larson & Associates / We Make Good Businesses Great & Great Businesses Even Better.

www.larsonassociates.ws

847-991-1294

All associates located in the United States

We are not taking ANY 100% incentive only projects at this time.

But remember, you can ONLY get the Larson advantage at Larson & Associates

Telemarketing Brings Profits and Sales

Telemarketing really can increase both your profits and bring needed added sales. If you don't already use telemarketing as a marketing channel for your business then maybe now is the perfect time to be adding telemarketing.

So you may ask if telemarketing is expensive? Telemarketing can be very expensive, but it depends on how you go about it. If you do the in-house telemarketing route you might be surprised to find it is usually more expensive. The Set up, the hiring and telephone, the computer, the training the managing, sick and vacation days all add up quickly.

Your best bet if you want to use telemarketing for your business would be to find a telemarketing company who is inexpensive, experienced. They should allow you to pay per hour or have an hourly plus incentive package available or even a per lead package. Expect to have some prepayment if you want a quality job. Work out how much you're willing to or can spend per week, then stick to that and grow your telemarketing campaign as your business grows. Most marketing companies will be willing to work with your budget and help you grow since it will also benefit their business.

To give you some idea, we at Larson & Associates, charge as little as $30 per hour per agent, or incentive plans mixing hourly and incentives. We can offer these affordable rates due to our structure and experienced staff.

How can telemarketing increase profits? As business owners you know you need fresh leads to keep your sales funnel full. No new leads, sales go down. Fresh leads sales go up, like magic. Telemarketing is one of the few ways to ensure you have a consistent flow of red hot sales leads and appointments because it is one of the only ways that actually goes out and seeks sales leads and doesn’t sit back and wait for them to come to you. Almost every other form or marketing does just that, it has you sitting there and hoping the prospect contacts you. But then we all need to remember where ever they come from, a lead is a lead... no one really cares if they are generated online, word of mouth, television, radio or telemarketing.

You need to remember that the leads you get from telemarketing will not to turn into instant sales.  Not every single lead you get is going to close, it is simply an opportunity for your business to present its products and services to an interested person. It can happen quickly sometimes sometimes longer but you do need to remember there is still a sales cycle that is a part of your industry. Telemarketing is a form of advertising and marketing not necessarily direct sales and you need to have patience with the progress of the leads and then use them properly.

How can you use the leads or appointments properly? Firstly you need a quality sales team. If you already have one then you need make sure they understand exactly what a lead is, that it is not a closed sale, that it is only a lead... and that they still need to close the prospect. It is simply a lead of someone who has expressed interest in your product or service.

Pick the correct qualifying questions. This (after your leads list) is the most important part in setting up your telemarketing attack. Keep in mind that you have 15 seconds to draw them into a conversation and only then to you gain the right to ask qualifying questions.

Get your sales team involved in the process because they are the ones who are going to get the bulk of the new leads and work by submitting the kind or qualification criteria they use to have in your telemarketing team’s questions. You know your sales team will be the first to complain (and rightfully so) about leads they are getting so their input at this point will make all the difference in the world.

You need to ensure that leads or appointments are not being wasted. I have seen time and time again that the company was not ready to hit the ground and follow up on leads from prospects that ended up buying from a competitor. They came in started a lead generation plan without a follow-up, follow-though plan. Sometimes sales people get lazy. They think that these leads they get should roll over and buy. It is a lead not a roll over play dead slam dunk! Not every lead or appointment is going to be easy. Sales people do need to be managed. (special message to sale people) Sorry guys you can’t just run loose and free you still need to fit into the company’s growth and sales plan. You as management are buying them leads so you as management needs to have accountability as to how they're utilizing the leads and appointments, you have a right to know that they are following up, and making the necessary calls when these potential customers asks. Are they re-scheduling any appointments which can’t be kept? Do they know the status of each lead or appointment they're working on?

Too often do I see sales leads being sent back to me for reasons such as "customer had a family emergency and needs to reschedule appointment" In cases like this the sales person should be taking charge and using his superior sales knowledge and his calendar and schedule the reschedule themselves. Don’t get lazy and stop being a sales person. You need to start building rapport not the telemarketer. This isn’t a bad lead! It could in prove to be a much easier lead to close due to the level of rapport being built as well as the prospect feeling bad that they had to cancel the first appointment.

Bottom line is you need to be tough on your sales people, I am not saying over manage them with needless reports and paperwork but scrutinize their work and if you have leads you believe weren't properly qualified to the standard you were promised based on your qualifying questions talk to your telemarketing company and many rather than scratching the whole process you only need to tweak it to make it work.

Now the 1 Million Dollar Question. How long will it take to start seeing profits from telemarketing?

It all depends. Might not be the answer you want to hear but it is the truthful one. Sometimes telemarketing is a working progress so you should not expect dramatic results quickly. You need to work together with your telemarketer to make sure you get the success you want out of the telemarketing campaign. Sometimes you will need to alter those qualifying questions in order to get the better results. Don’t just go and slam the telemarketer. Let’s face it, it’s a job few people want to do.

Usually things will run much smoother if you're working with a company who has experience in telemarketing for your industry, your product or your service. Especially if you are not 100% sure on what you’re qualifying questions should be.

We can also provide our thoughts as to what qualifying questions you might want to include. Remember this is for your benefit to work with and help us get you great results so the more detailed the information you give us on your product or service and what kind of results you're looking for and what your sales process is, we can only do better.

If you begin your campaign with all the correctly then you can and should be seeing results as soon as the leads or appointments are worked on by your sales team. This could be as quick as one week!

Now does telemarketing have other benefits besides generating sales leads and appointments for your business?

Absolutely! Any marketing that is don’t correctly and is actively getting your business name out there will defiantly have other benefits for your business. Monitor all activity and ask how they heard about your company. Many times weeks and months after a telemarketing campaign is over you will get calls coming in.

Don't just use telemarketing as a lead generation service or appointment setting service Max it out!!!! Let us give out your website your business details send or email information to those people you think don't exactly qualify or aren't available for an appointment right now. Things change. Circumstances change. Personnel change.

Not only will this increase traffic to your website but it will provide you with future business and will expose your business to more people! The person we speak to may also have friends who might be interested in your products and/or services as well.

Is telemarketing the only marketing I need for my business? No it is only one way, but one of the few that go out and actively goes after prospects. If you're just starting out telemarketing is definitely a great place to start, it is fast, effective and will definitely increase profits for your business and allow your business to grow NOW not in 3 months.

But like any marketing channel the more the channels you are using the better. Combining telemarketing with Social Media Marketing, SEO, Content Marketing, Blogging, Direct Mail, E-Mail will only bring more exposure to your business.

As you work the channels you need to see what works and what doesn’t.

Larson Notes & Satire:  I think telemarketing can do positive things for your business when it is done right. You don’t and some slash and burn kind of person doing the calling for you, leaving a trail of blood behind them like Sherman’s March to the Sea. We are not a slash and burn kind of place. If you're thinking of adding telemarketing to your business’s marketing plan then get in touch with us. We can put a plan together and usually have you up and running within a week. Putting in place a person who has experience in your kind of business so you can begin working towards boosting profits for your business!

And if you want your business to be more and have more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

Ways Lead Generation Works

If you can’t keep your sales pipeline full of fresh new leads you will fail. NO matter what out of any list of 100 names there are only a certain number of new customers. So every time you take 1 out of the list be it a yes or a no, you don’t lose 1 real lead, you lose that 1 and maybe 20 more that were never going to buy but are still in your data base.

1) Using The Wrong People – For every lead generation program, you need to be sure that the employees be it inside telemarketer or outside rep making the sales calls have the appropriate background and knowledge. I would say you want to be finding a mature adult who knows how to think on their feet. A college education back ground doesn’t hurt and any kind of selling experience. If you can get any familiarity with the client, product or service is you got a real winner.

2) Defining The Lead – How will sales reps or telemarketer know when they have a lead or suspect if they have no clue what a good lead looks like in the first place? What does a customer look like? If you can’t define it don’t expect anyone else to be able to do it for you. A business can qualify a lead by industry, company size, revenue, location, and be taking the prospect to a closed sale faster by confirming the more advanced information like budget, authority and timeline.

3) Poor Messaging – A message that does not resonate with prospects or that is difficult to understand, or one that is difficult for sales reps or telemarketers to say and deliver is going to slow down any kind of lead generation campaign. Your company must have a clear, pointed, directed message that speaks to the needs, the pains or the joys for your product or service from your company for the prospect to generate results.

4) Wrong target – If you have the wrong list the message does not make any difference. This happens when you do not properly build or acquiring a list of prospects based on your company’s perfect customer or if you focus too much on the influencer and not the ones making the buying decisions. Remember the perfect demographics when making or getting your list, industry, company size, revenue, and location.

5) Poor Lead Handoff – This sometimes means a lead was not properly qualified, or it took too long for a good lead to the sales people too late, well after the prospect has forgotten about the conversation or bought from another vendor. It done right and seamlessly a proper lead handoff can help businesses avoid both of these situations.

Larson Notes & Satire:  I have always said the better the Lead List the better the Lead Generation process. If you are hitting on the right people and the right companies they well need what you are selling day in and day out.

There are ways to do this. Secrets if you want to call them that to make the process better. I call it experience.

So how will your company grow in 2013? Share with us your thoughts. What has worked in your organization in lead generation and what are mistakes you have learned from in the past?

And if you want your business to be more and have more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

The Mindset of a Communication Services Provider

Get your head out of the sand. If you can start thinking of more than just a shift in technology or product line, becoming a Communication Services Provider is at least to start with, a shift of mindset. As a CSP, you’ll still be a Printer or a Print

Services Provider (PSP) but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The real change is in your head, it is one of your overall perspectives of your business and your company.

Here are four ways to adopt and implement yourself as a Communication Services Provider

1^st Start by talking to your customers. Really when was the last time you talked to your key accounts on what they need, not just in the way of printing but about their entire communication needs and process.

2^nd Selling a product or service is only one step of what you need to be doing. Selling printing makes you a commodity. Selling a communication service makes you a total service filling out a full need, not a part. If you do it right, this interacting with customers should of course be a constant back and forth process for the entire life cycle of the customer. As a Communication Services Provider you need to learn about the reason behind the products and services they buy. With each service and transaction you make, you need to know and ask “What is that client’s ultimate goal and reason for doing this.”

As there Communication Services Provider your mind needs to be project based, not product based. You are solving a problem not a requirement of that problem. You’re starting a communication partnership, instead of just being a print vendor. If you understand your customer’s print marketing goals and how those align with their overall marketing goals you start to become valued partner. If all you do is pick up the phone, take the order and then hang up and do the job, become noting more than a commodity.

3^rd Start Selling Solutions. Shifting from PSP to CSP means you’ll have to sell yourself in terms of total solutions instead of just products. The print part of a project is just that, only part of the solution. Now you need to communicate the benefits of print in the context of the total communication and marketing system.

The brochure you print, the flier you produced, your direct mail offering you have going out isn’t important because it’s just a piece of paper or a nicely typeset invitation to purchase your client’s product. All of those things mean nothing really. You can go out and buy them anywhere. The direct mail pieces, the flier, the brochure, are nothing without knowledge of the entire process. You need to be selling the solution not the product.

4^th the all important Follow Up. If you have listened to and understand your client’s business goals and communication and marketing objectives, you’re finally in a position to follow up with them and offer them true value. Your printing company is already part of the communication and marketing process. Now, take those isolated printed pieces and make it a communication campaign with all the other parts of the channels of marketing and communication.

As a Communication Services Provider, you can sell clients on creating complete projects both on and off line, which allow you to track campaign result and engagement. You can further automate the process to report to your clients on exactly how the mail performed–who went to the personalized webpage, how long they stayed and whether they acted truly interested. In other words, you can become a total marketing partner, actively delivering leads, reporting marketing effectiveness and using measurement tools to make future campaigns more effective for them

Just remember becoming a Communication Services Provider means changing your perspective, then match that with your product and service offerings. You aren’t just selling a new product: you’re partnering with a client to help them find total communication solutions not just print solutions that solve their problems.

Larson Notes & Satire:  So how will your company grow in 2013? Only in one way? Print if you’re a printer? Signs if you’re a sign shop? Yet you could be more, so much more. If there was a way for you to become a complete communication company for your key accounts at no cost to you, would you?

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

Growth Synergies for the Printer

I know it goes against every bone in your ink stained body but to grow in 2013 might require a new way of thinking. Are the old strategies still working for you? I’m guessing no. I’m guessing you are getting hammered from the right and from the left from online, to do it on my copy machine to paperless.

So what do you do? If you play ostrich and put your head in the sand you’re done for. The only word that comes to mind is Synergy. You need to find people in related fields that can add to your company’s service base. Surround yourself with a team of experts to engage in a successful hands off partnership.

If the railroads had see how airline companies were going to come in and dominate passenger traffic they might have gotten into the business of flying or bought them out when they were small and buyable.

If you’re a commercial printer, this is especially a wise strategy to consider. You can buy your way in. But that takes money which is in short supply.

We all know that in a flat economy, sales are hard to come by. And I call 2% growth pretty flat. That’s why you can’t just think of adding more sales people, or cutting your costs. After the last few years or cost cutting are there any more places to cut costs? Probably not. And as for qualified salespeople the good ones are not moving and the bad ones, well you don’t want them.

To do what I am suggesting you may have to reconsider the basic structure of your business. Parts of your business that are drags on your business. What would happen if you stopped or outsourced those parts?

Then there is expansion of services. Could you achieve synergies to make your “printing” company a communication company by teaming with someone else? This is a case where you could work with a competitor or parallel company to achieve a win-win situation.

There are risks, there always are risks.  But the greatest risk a printing owner can make is to be stuck in his or her definition of what the definition of their company and business is and to formulate a growth strategy.

Larson Notes & Satire:  If you want to bust out of the trap of being a printer to one of being a marketing communication company. We have ideas. They might work for your company, they might not. As for why, what we know about web, social media marketing, telemarketing will take you time to catch up to what we know and guess what? By then we will know even more. My point is to form a synergy with an organization like ours who does not want to steal the printing side of your business but work behind the scenes as a partner letting you keep in total control of the customer base might be just what you need to get your company to 2014.

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

White Hat / Black Hat Better Know The Difference

I might know every wrong way to make a website go up on the search engines. You know the ones that get your site booted out of Google and then you need to go on bended knee and beg them to take your web site back and list it.  You might think oh that’s bad. But let me tell you it’s very very good.

When it comes to social media marketing, there is a long list of best practices and worst practices that you the marketing manager or business owner needs to be aware of.

Sometimes this line of good and bad get all messy, and even though you might be innocently just trying to improve your hits and followers or metrics, BAM! The web marshal goes and puts your site in web jail. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 new followers! Yes you could be crossing the line and being accused of using “black hat tactics”.

Black hat tactics go against both the written and unwritten rules of social media. Yes we are at war, but these kinds of tactics bait the system in order to achieve better results. Now some black hat tactics are clearly underhanded and I mean sneaky bad, and easy to identify, others are not so bad and are leveraged by thousands of marketers and companies on a daily basis, sometimes on purpose and many times totally unintentionally. Below I have given you 5 black hat strategies, along with ways to clean up your act.

Black Hat 1: Buying your Audience
This is such an obvious black hat practice, and it really makes no sense to do. While there are many services that make it simple for someone to purchase fans or followers, this tactic has little-to-no value. The popularity is nice and we all wanted to be Homecoming King or Queen in High School, but you shouldn’t have to pay for it. Not only can you totally damage your company’s reputation with your real 3F’s friends, family and followers, but chances are that these mysterious new audience fans don’t care much about what your company has to say. Then again, purchased fans and followers could hide spammers and hackers, which have the potential to really cause a whole lot of problems for you.

White Hat 1: Growing your Audience
The best way to grow your audience is with engaging content. This includes great posts, insightful content, images, videos, promotions, polls and any other type of interactive ideas and update that grabs you attention. Once you start posting content on a regular basis and promote it on your SM page even more people can see, find and comment on it. This should be done on both Facebook and Twitter. As you do this you (nicely) get the word about your company’s social profiles, which helps increase real fan and follower.

Black Hat 2: Running Facebook Promotions Directly on a Page
This is an example of where the lines between black hat and white hat get blurry. Although many companies run promotions on Facebook on a regular basis, only companies who are running these promotions within Apps on Facebook.com are actually complying with the Facebook Pages Terms.

White Hat 2: Running Legit Promotions
The Facebook Pages Terms make it totally clear that promotions must be administered within Apps, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App. However, social marketing managers should also note some of the network’s other promotion rules, like acknowledging that promotions are not endorsed or sponsored by Facebook, disclosing who is collecting participants’ information, as well as not using Facebook functions (such as likes, comments or check-ins) as valid actions for entries into a contest or promotion.

Black Hat 3: Spamming for Traffic
Another obvious black hat tactic is spamming for traffic. Most of us have seen the social spammers, who tend to comment on popular posts and tweets with a random message in addition to some strange link. While most of you reading this article know better than to click on these suspect links, others don’t, which is why this shady tactic continues.

White Hat 3: Posting for Traffic
The best way to fight against spammers is to report them, but this doesn’t solve the problem of how you can obtain more web traffic via the social media. Aside from posting good engaging content, another way companies can boost their visibility (and therefore web site traffic) is by participating in conversations on topics, which is most easily done on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Black Hat 4: Corrupt Cover Photos
Facebook cover photos are meant to be a representation of your company, but some companies leverage this area to promote sales. The Facebook Page Terms, however, clearly labels these tactics as prohibited. In fact, covers images cannot be made up of more than 20 percent text, include price or purchase information, contain website, email or mailing addresses, have references to Facebook actions or other call-to-actions.

White Hat 5: Innovative Cover Photos
If you are determined to use your cover photo to promote a new service or product, try to use some imagination in order to not breach the Facebook Pages Terms. While a cover photo car get to the point or a new product or service you need it to also comply with cover photo guidelines by not including too much text, a call-to-action or pricing information.

Black Hat 5: Sneaky Automation
Using automated services for social media campaigns is another place where the lines between black and white hats get blurry. While these services can make life much easier for you, they can also be major annoyances when done the wrong way. An example of a bad use of automation is when company’s send out generic messages to new followers and fans thanking them for becoming a follower. While you might not think this is “bad”, some companies take the thank you message a step further by asking their new fans to take an immediate action in engaging with them by adding a link to their website, a product or additional social profile within the message. While this might not bother some people, it can turn others away.

White Hat 5: Automation to Help Save Time
Automation tools should be used to help you make the posting process done in less time. A service like IFTTT can make some social media management tasks easier, you should remember that interactions with fans and followers should come off as authentic, and not from a robot. Use it but be careful. It is social and sooner or later you need to interact.

Larson Notes & Satire:  So are you I hot water? Are you a Black Hat, White Hat, Gray Hat or a Hat Of Many Colors, or do you just not know?

Take it from a guy who knows all the Black Hat ways to do web promotion. The dirty little truth is these 5 Hats are just the tip of the iceberg as to what you should be working through. And, what you don’t know can hurt you.

So you might want to think about your next step. We put it all together with a powerful knowledge and experience base.

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

Improve Marketing Effectiveness

Improve Marketing Effectiveness

Did you know that you can economize on your print marketing and increase your marketing effectiveness simultaneously?

You might equate saving money with choosing less expensive paper or printing less, but it is about targeting and optimization. Here are ways you can save marketing dollars while actually improving your results.

1) Clean your database. Yes, get rid of all those dead end names, out of business companies, people who have lost or left their jobs. Throw them out. Then try to make sure all the addresses are correct both email and physical addresses. There is no sense spending the time emailing something to someone that has no chance of getting there. Even an email blast has a cost. As for mail? Mail, even if you print it yourself has a cost to print and mail it out but the name is not quite as important because it might go to the new person who took your old prospects place. When your mail gets to the place you want it to go, your response rates go up!

What percentage of a direct mailing you do actually gets delivered? Do you have any idea? According to the United States Postal Service, 30% of all bulk mail never gets to its location because the addresses are undeliverable.

So work hard to keep your mailing list up to date if you are going to use it, it is money you don’t waist. The USPS can and wants to help you. They don’t like all that junk mail they can’t deliver either. So they have a service called the United States Postal Service CASS certification to confirm that addresses in your list are deliverable. Run your list through the NCOA (National Change of Address) every six months and keep that list scrubbed.

Next best thing you can do with your list is to break it down into segments. Not all prospects are created equal or should get the same message. Break down your database to pin point accuracy by targeting your message to different demographic groups within your larger target audience. This will not just decrease your print runs and postage but because your message is more relevant you will increase your response rates.

2) Divide in to target markets. By dividing your audience in to groups, you can speak to each more specifically. You might tailor your message by sic code. You might offer different products to businesses falling in to different levels of number of employees or sales. You might send different offers and incentives to current customers versus your past customers.

If you don't have demographics that you can pull out of in your database, and they do really help, demographic direction is very cost-effective. Talk to us about adding different variables into your market segment that will help to increase the pointed direction you want your marketing to attack or be directed to. The tighter your direction and offer the better your return on investment (ROI) will be.

Then think about your overall push. Be it direct mail, email blast or a telemarketing campaign, if you are still printing and mailing bulk if your email mail is not pointed if your telemarketing secret is one size fits all just to economize, it might be time to rethink. Get off the merry-go-round of marketing nonsense. Today's channels no matter what you are working in from Social Media Marketing to Direct Mail can be tailor made to fit your target. Offset and digital technologies let you print on demand (POD) and/or in time (JIT) so why not use that mentality in the rest of your marketing. As you do, your marketing gets stronger, your return goes up, you get more leads and you make more money.

3) Print on demand. A recent article, Target Marketing suggested evaluating the cost-effectiveness of POD models in the following categories:

Generic documents with annual usage of less than 5,000 pieces
More complex documents with annual usage of less than 1,000 pieces
New pieces for which no shelf life or usage history has been established
Items that change often
Materials about to enter back-order status

These are simple steps, but they can have profound results. Even in case you are in the rare minority of those not looking to economize on print marketing, keeping your database up to date, segmenting and targeting your marketing messages, and moving to a real-time stock and print management model ought to be part of the best practices of every company's marketing program.

Larson Notes & Satire:  Clean database, dividing up your list to its proper demographics, then use it. Yes use it, run it hard and run it fast.

That, if nothing else is what we do best. We use what you got and do it day in day out consistently.

Now if there was a number 4 to that list that would be to be consistent. Outsource your marketing lead generation work to a company like ours and that is what you get. Day in day out consistency. We don’t get too busy. We don't  to run out on an appointment or any of the distractions that get in the way of self marketing or self prospecting so we don’t have time to do the work. We don’t get to busy to mail sort your direct mail piece and get it out. We get it done.

Then 5. We know how to use the tools and the systems that make them work. We don’t have to learn on your time and your dollar. That college kid who works for an hour? You think he knows how to work social media and SEO for business? We already know what they only dream of knowing.

So you might want to think about your next step. We put it all together with a powerful knowledge and experience base.

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

Printers, Time To Do Or Die!

In my career, of some 4 decades in the printing and communication industry, I worked long hours that would cause weaker men do drop. Had the pleasure of winning an award or 2 for my work. Yet I need to ask you, that is if you’re in any area of printing, advertising or communications what the heck are you doing?

It use to be everyone was or wanted to be an art director. We use to say if we do it; the cost will be $30.00 per hour, if you watch $40.00, if you direct $50.00, and if you help $60.00. Now as if that was not bad enough everyone now owns their own computer which has some kind of graphic program on it so that designer who knows and understand how things get printed is no longer needed. Bad layout here we come. No typography needed so here come the rivers in the copy, poor character kerning, no ligatures, too much bold type and hyphenations on every other line.

It started back in the 80’s with the birth of “the Mac” as in Apple not McDonald’s but with more widespread use of window based PC’s now everyone (thinks) they can design their own brochures, create their own websites, write great copy and a hard hitting headline. Printing and the graphic industry continues to change but in the wrong direction. The owners of a small business no longer care if the design of their printed piece is of high quality, if the stock is picked out to fit the need, if the images scanned come out all pixilated. 20# thank you! They created it so they will accept what they never would have if you did if for them. Now they are running it out of their very own office copier. High end quality work?  Disappearing. And if it does make it to a printer how many times does it need to be redesigned so that the poor quality of customer supplied “art” or should we say files are made to work. And can the printer charge for this extra work? No way. Nope the file fixing charges disappear. It happened to typesetters when they became service bureaus now its the printers that are getting wacked.

Today you are earning less and working harder. It’s the truth and you know it! If you have been in the print industry as long as I have, then you know that the support staff has dwindled down to nothing. No more layout men, no more copy writers, no more proofreaders, no more NOTHING. We, you, me, your competitor are expected to know and be able to do everything at a high level. No more strippers, no more typesetters, the production schedulers, no more proofers. There is no money in the projects to have any of these specialists.  And that $20-$50 dollar an hour salaries you were able to pay out have gone too as low as $10-$15. It is no longer about working smarter it’s all about working harder and longer. To have any hope for profitability you and what staff you have managed to keep need to be multitasking your butts off because the idea of hiring any additional employees is just not going to happen. Everyone is doing the work of 4 or 5 no just people but different kinds of people and expected to not make any dumb stupid mistakes.

Shall we ever talk about the competition which is driving both your gross earnings and profits down the abyss? So what is happening? Company "A" gives a price break to get a printing job for 20% less than your company is charging. So what do you do? You go down 25% and so the cycle continues. Then there is the graphic artist who is straight out of school working in their parent’s house with the Mac that there parents bought them not even thinking about equipment break down and the need to upgrade as they work are to try to get into the industry and is willing to work for $10.00 per hour. Kiss that work goodbye. And think of the poor sales person. If you are a commissioned sales person, you just lost 30% to 40% of your commission or more if your commission is based on job profit not overall cost. There is no profit! Then the fact that your printing company might have to lower the quality of work to get any profit at all. Quality has no bearing on a job, now it is all about getting project out as cost effectively, and as efficiently as possible.

The Print Industry is dying or at least some parts of it are but it does not have to for you. It’s unfortunate but some parts of our industry are going to disappear and disappear very quickly like the typesetting industry 20 years ago in just a matter of 2-4 years. Even now look at the CD/DVD replication part of the industry. Half of what it was just 5 years ago and dying a slow painful death. We get a lot of our information online, no more books and pamphlets. Hello Nook! When is the last time you picked up a phone book to look for a telephone number? I still do but my sons and daughter hardly know what a phone book is. And 1st class mail? Email that letter! Then there is the push for a "paperless" office.

No the print industry is not going to die out completely, many once profitable companies are going completely under or companies that I thought would never consider a merger are coming together. Read anything coming out of the industry associations and although they might not say it outwardly they are worried. State wide associations are moving to regional associations to keep enough of a membership going.

So what are you gong to do?

Larson Notes & Satire:  Is there an answer? I think so. But the answer might not lie in print but a more board based idea of a Marketing and Communication company.

As I see it, the one biggest move you can be making for your company is to become that total communication company that your key accounts want. They need it and they know it and what's more if you don’t provide it they will find it from the guy down the street.

To do that you have 1 of 2 choices, You can go and hire the talent to do it yourself and I am sure that a number of you reading this will do that just that. That is the mentality of the printer and believe me I don't mean that in a bad way. We are individualists!

But there is a second choice and that is to join with a synergistic company like ours with all the talent you need who will provide it at not exposure financially to you and wrap it up in a private label service package. And that my friend is the good news!

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

Time To Add Services That Work

Adding Services That Work

It use to be that all a good printing company had to do was continually invest in their people and their equipment. That was about all it took to stay competitive and increase productivity and quality. Even now companies should be making sure that they are continually investing in these important skill sets of:

Technical skills
Sales skills
Customer management skills
Purchasing skills
Negotiation skills
Social media skills

Yet as good as having all these skills sets are they are no good without the right services in place. Skills without the services are worthless. You will not be able to push the envelope, to make things work and have a trained staff in place to hit the ground running and get superior results if you can’t put everything in place and ready to roll in perfection. Customers are not going to let you learn things on their dime. Customers are not going to let you train yourself and staff with the very lifeblood of their companies marketing at stake.

The world does not have time to stop while you learn the new communication and marketing techniques.

To change for the future printing companies need, yes I said need, not think about, adding services. Now that might not sound like something you want to be doing but to achieve sales growth and market share it is not an option. It is no longer enough to just put ink on paper. To roll off the perfect printed piece and smile. To have the perfect press check as you sip a cup of coffee with your client in the customer lounge. Print companies have to sell a complete value added services. You cannot sit back and do one part of the marketing/advertising package. More now than prerecession it is do it all or die a slow painful death. As a Printing company you had better be considering what your customers need. They understand the challenges that they face and you had better start. If you can’t, don’t or won’t produce solutions to overcome their marketing challenges they will go shopping for a supplier that will.

Larson Notes & Satire:  So what’s a printing company to do?

1st you can begin by looking at some new services and try to decide what areas you can move into (with the least amount of pain). If you can’t do it alone you need to find a synergistic partner who will not steal your customers.

2nd, review your key accounts, you know the 2 or 3 that make up 60% of your companies business. The ones that if you lose your company goes out of business. As ask them what other services they would want you to be offering them in a more holistic marketing attack.

3rd review your sales message. You need to be more inclusive of the all areas of the communication process to get your customers the kind or results they need in a way they expect.

If it were my shop, I’d be looking at picking a synergistic partner with a history of blood and ink running though my veins that matches my values.

So where does that leave us? I have been around the block a few times. Been full time with my own company since 1975 as well as having grown up in the business working for my father’s company starting in 1966. Walking in to the smell of ink, the sound of the feeder grabbing each sheet of paper, the pounding of our Gordon as it die cut card stock. Yes I have a history, and what I hope is a more glorious future.

If you want your business to be more call us for an appointment.


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.