Words of a Broken Mirror » Sales

How to Pick up New Clients in a Fearful Economy

Alina Popescu — Tue, 03 May 2011 08:00:52 +0000

Guest post by Alexis Bonari

The Fed says we’re in recovery, but there’s no doubt in my mind that there continues to be a great amount of uncertainty about the economy. Looking at various economic indicators like gold futures, gun sales, and home security systems definitely supports this theory. People feel threatened and insecure, and that fear shows up in their spending habits. These are serious considerations marketers need to take into account in order to prosper under these dire circumstances.

We’ve all seen advertising campaigns based in fear, and as much as we may dislike these techniques, they do tend to work. Given the length of time that our current economic troubles have been going on, an increase in consumer awareness, target demographics, and media fatigue this base strategy will not be profitable for every market. A good marketer knows how to make the best of every situation, and what follows is some advice for how to successfully approach these stagnant markets.

1. Think about how your product fulfills your clients’ needs in this type of economy

For us Internet types, this is pretty obvious. Large numbers of unemployed people have taken to the Internet to try and make some cash. For bloggers, this means an increased opportunity for guest posts, for SEOs it means a larger potential client base. This group of people is not necessarily going to be the most Internet savvy crowd, but they need an income; by focusing your marketing strategy on how you can fulfill this need you are sure to win.

2. Think of how you can add value to your brand for this new demographic

With times being as tight as they are, most people, especially unemployed ones are reluctant to spend money on anything that isn’t clear in its returns. An investment of several thousand dollars, which for example, is quite reasonable for professional SEO services, may be out of their reach. If you are a well established SEO you may not want to split your services and lower your perceived value, but there are other avenues you can take to pick up that business without devaluing yourself. Be a little creative in addressing the needs of this demographic in order to convert their visits into sales. For example, stress your past successes in marketing start-ups and small businesses.

3. Learn to effectively manage fear instead of blindly playing into it

Start-ups inherently have a lot of uncertainty, especially for people that haven’t done them before. Successfully mitigating this fear is essential to prospering in this type of economy. While there is no sure fire way to do this, you’re marketing strategy should have it in mind. Prove to your customer base that an investment in your services will result in returns, and be honest with them what kinds of returns they can expect. Remember that this demographic is taking a gamble, and while you might not be able to guarantee their success, since that is dependent on the quality of their own work, you can guarantee the quality of the service you provide.

About the author
Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and researcher for College Scholarships, where recently she’s been researching environmental scholarships as well as political science scholarships. Whenever she gets some free time, she enjoys watching a funny movie or curling up with a good book.

PR and the Fear of Being Measured in Sales

Alina Popescu — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 08:31:32 +0000

I am not a big fan of the act of selling, simply because I am not really sure I actually can be good at it. I can promote a product, a service, put it in the best light and show its benefits to potential buyers, but somehow I see that as pre-sales at best. I am a PR professional and for the longest time I thought having my work being measured in sales was crazy. First of all, there was no easily traceable direct link between my work and sales. And if I said what I did led to sales, the sales people might jump in and say I was wrong, it was their achievement. I later realized my work actually did help boost sales, although not always directly.

I have seen a lot of conversations between PR pros about measurement. And there are tons of approaches to be taken. But in the eye of the client, it all comes down to sales. You can use whatever measurement you want, if they don’t feel you’re helping their sales, they will look for someone else. Fair? Debatable. True? You bet! Should it scare us? Not really!

Everything a PR specialist does eventually translates into sales, if said person is good at their job. Sometimes it takes half a year, other times it takes less. But if you watch your results carefully, you will start to see the connections. Yes, we can talk about brand image (leads to trust from potential customers when there’s a positive brand perception, which means they will eventually buy that brand), crisis management (think damage control! A good crisis communication campaign means that only a small part of the customers will choose someone else), hits, traffic, follows, likes (these all translate into actions – off or on-site – which in turn lead to… buying something), virtual or traditional event attendance (translates into leads which may purchase what the company is selling).

See, it’s easy to link PR to sales if you take the time and follow the logical train of thought. You still follow the same goals and use the same measurements, you do not have to necessarily measure everything in sales. But knowing to perfectly explain how what you do leads to sales and profits will always help. Sure, you bring in the leads, along with the marketing team, but sometimes it all comes down to how the sales team really closes the deal. Or the simple fact that a client site works or not when the customer actually hits the buy button! But at the end of the day, your part of the deal is kept!

What PR pros often lack is the ability to distance themselves from how they see things and understand how others see them. A company owner or the CEO of the business they work for realize on some level they need PR, that’s why a certain agency or employee works with them! But asking them to think further than how everything you do translates into palpable sales numbers may be a bit too much. They need to understand you are not working towards making them look hot for everyone. You are making huge efforts to make them look hot for potential buyers. Seems to be the same, but stating your final goal helps!

How to Lose a Customer After Having Convinced Them to Buy!

Alina Popescu — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:10:13 +0000

When trying to sell a product or service, the hardest part is to convince your potential customers they need it, want it or can actually use it to make their life better. A lot of effort goes into marketing and PR, engaging people, outlining the benefits, making sure what you’re selling pops up exactly when and where they would be happy to see it.

Let’s say this part of the process went really great and the customer is convinced. They would then go to your website, fill out the order form… and you might think there is no way in hell to lose that paying customer right now!

Then again you would be wrong. All it takes is a Pay now button that does not work!

Sure, there might be some potential buyers so taken with your product or service, that they would go through the trouble of sending you an email, waiting for you to fix your stupid tech problem and then spend some more time on the same form before getting what they wanted. The truth is most of your customers will put the email writing time to good use and buy from the first competitor offering something similar.

End of story! You’ve just lost a customer for the lamest reason ever

Monday Reading Roundup Take #29

Alina Popescu — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:14:48 +0000

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

Last week was yet another proof that there are so many wonderful articles being published out there, it’s almost impossible to keep up with all of them. Here’s a quick selection of part of the most interesting ones I ran across last week.

One great business post was published by Jonathan Fields, teaching us a very important lesson – How to Box and Sell Air.

From the never boring and always extremely funny Naomi Dunford, comes a great piece on email marketing – 7 Ways to Make Damn Sure Your Email gets Read.

Maribeth Kuzmeski found a great way to outrun your competitors and published it on WomenonBusiness.com: Killing Your Competition with (Client) Kindness.

Next, let me introduce you to two 5-ers: 5 Ways Your Blog is Undermining Your Business from ProBlogger and 5 Reasons You Absolutely MUST Share Your Vision Early and Often by Liz Strauss.

Following item on our list – a much retweeted and very helpful piece on Social Media Examiner – How to Grow a Following with Other People’s Popular Content.

For those who love some relevant numbers in the HR field and also for all the social media enthusiast, I recommend reading Social Media Recruiting, By the Numbers.

Closing today’s list, a question from ReadWriteWeb that a lot of busineses need to asnwer – Should Your Startup Stay Stealth?

That’s all for today, see you next Monday! Until then, please share the interesting articles you ran across in the comment section!

PR Superpowers: Anticipating the Next Question

Alina Popescu — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:44:55 +0000

When answering a customer support enquiry, when replying a reporter’s email or a fan’s request, when simply sending out a sales offer, anticipating the next move you need to make to help the customer is the secret to your impressive success. You need to be able to predict what their next question will be and reply to it before they actually ask it.

Let’s consider a few examples to better support my statement: anticipating questions is a PR superpower and by extension a business superpower.

A customer asks if he has the option to do a certain something when using your product or service. While you might be tempted to send a quick yes or no reply, stop for a minute and think: his next question to a positive response will be “how?” and to a negative one “what other options do I have?”. Why not take the time to answer the questions you’ve anticipated? It will save your customer save time and he will feel like you can really understand his or her needs.

Someone send an email to your sales team asking about a certain product or service. You might also be offering one or two alternatives to it, maybe one that’s more affordable, or another that’s provides some needed extra features. If based on their requirements you feel the initial product or service of interest might not be what they need, why risk forcing them to realize it on their own? They might send a second email explaining what they need and asking if you have something that suits them, or they might go straight to the competition.

Let’s say a journalists contacts your PR rep asking if it’s possible to interview someone on a certain issue. Why would they want to reply with a simple yes, when they journalist will obviously need to know who they should interview and when they are available?

Doesn’t sound like rocket science, does it? It just takes a bit of information on your customers, their needs, and your own experience dealing with similar issues. Anticipating the next question in media relations, customer care, sales, internal communications translates into going the extra mile. Putting in a little more effort to provide a great solution instead of a simple answer to a question you know will generate more.

Monday Reading Roundup Take #25

Alina Popescu — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:14:27 +0000

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

Welcome to a new and sunny edition of our Monday reading list. I’ll start with something a little differnent today, an entry for this month “What I learned from” group writing project, lessons from a sidewalk. And it’s Brad Shorr’s entry, talking about sales lessons learned while pounding the pavement, it’s downsides and the many pluses of newer technologies.

Jonathan Fields has some adivice for you if you want to be a better speaker – go commando! What does that mean? It meand improvising, creating on the fly and coming up with a very real speech.

Jean Murray of Home Biz Notes talks about a rather sensitive issue: what to do when your spouse doesn’t support your work? Read her article for some great tips on how to get them on your side.

John Bell of the Digital Influence Mapping Project talked explained the difference between paid media, earned media and word of mouth, in the context of what brands want.

Shirazz Data thinks social networking has really nailed customer satisfaction. The next task on its to do list? Customer loyalty. Read his entry to get an idea of how to make the transition.

And to chear you up for this week, here’s an amazingly funny entry from Jaffe Juice: click to see how Michelangelo’s David would look after spending too much time in the US . And Ian Lurie’s explanation of why SEO is just like bacon!

The internet is a really dizzingly large place, I’m sure I’ve missed a couple of great articles. Let’s share them in the comment box!

Monday Reading Roundup Take #23

Alina Popescu — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:00:29 +0000

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

Happy Monday everyone! A new week has just started and I bring you a fresh reading list. Hope you find these articles useful and that you add your own findings in the comment box.

Motivation is paramount no matter what you do or where you do it (home or in the office). Jean Murray of Home Biz Notes has put up a list of 7 ways to stay motivated.

We all tend to distort the truth: when we clean up because parents come to visit (I do this extremely often), when we’re asked to say the first thing that comes to our mind, yet we stop to think. We have our reasons for it, but we all do it. This leads to Nami Dunfords simple conclusion: all customers are liars.

What should you do to build your brand? Apparently, it only takes 3 steps to knit it. That’s Drew McLellan’s recipe.

Mig of eWritings takes os back to traditional SEO. And she’s teaching us a little more about the Meta description tag. You know, those few lines that appear under your link on Google search result pages!

Do you think some people are difficult? They might think the very same about you! Barbara Rozgonyi shows us how to deal with such people by being one of them.

Brad Shorr uses silly wordplays to explain sales. More specifically the difference between spending and investing.

That’s all for today! Ejoy the new week and see you next Monday!

Keep the promise you make in the subject line

Alina Popescu — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:00:12 +0000

I’ve recently received an email looking like an attempt at email marketing, promising me some world renowned book for free. I was intrigued by a) the fact that the spam filter didn’t catch it and b) my not knowing anything about the book. So I took a second look at the content, thinking it might be some promotional ebook version sent out to bloggers by someone with way too little experience.

I saw the price for the book, big and shinny, along with a promotional discount image. I deleted it and moved on. But it got me thinking about all the promises marketers and PR people make in their emails and how not keeping them makes them lose potential customers, potential exposure on different channels, their reputation and more.

Why do people make promises they don’t keep in the email body? Simply because they’ve read somewhere that the subject line needs to be informative, but catchy. It needs to make the person seeing it want to read your email. And yes, you need to give it your best shot, but making up a big fat lie won’t help you! So if it’s a big fat discount, say so, if it’s a newsletter, make sure it’s not pure sales copy (see news in the name), if you’re offering something free, ok, you can say it with a clever phrase (not the capitalized FREE that triggers spam filters). But say what you mean, don’t hide behind false pretenses!

It’s like those articles who’s headline says one thing and they’re actually about something else. They disappoint you, get you a bit angry and no matter what, you won’t really give in to a second try. Once you’ve disappointed a potential customer, they won’t buy from you, unless they are forced to (company policies, an explicit request from someone). But they will do so only if their attempt at convincing the others to switch to a different product or service fails.

So why lose customers, get some bad reviews and damage your reputation just to increase the number of “read” emails. While we all want to know how many people have read our emails and how many of them clicked on the buy/more/visit us links and thoroughly keep an eye on these metrics, they are not really relevant. Clicks are a bit more relevant. But opening an email does not mean the user has read the copy, understood what you are saying and is just about to come buy what you’re selling. That you’ll get to measure by paying attention to who actually bought, the number of replies saying they’ve actually tried and loved your product or service, etc.

When it comes to blogging, email marketing and a bunch of other PR and Marketing tools, taking the metrics out of context and relying on them alone happens all too often. We lose sight of what’s really important and that is getting more people to buy by helping them solve a problem, increase productivity, making them happy or whatever it is that you do for your customers.

Photo credit: unknown apparently, I found it here.

Post Sales Services, Compatibility and Customer Loyalty

Alina Popescu — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:52:38 +0000

Are you wondering why I’ve kind of disappeared? Well, the reasons are two: my not feeling very well and Kayla chewing up my laptop charger. Does the last one sound a bit like the “Dog ate my homework” excuse? Well, at least it is funny! But being without my laptop really reduced my online time. Why? Because I have to get my boyfriend away from his computer and work without most of my tools. Then again I have no saved passwords and it gets into a big hassle very fast.

Bottom line, I want my computer running . At all times if possible. Now the big question comes: why didn’t I buy a new charger. Well, I couldn’t find one. In the big city, capital even, of Bucharest, with its 4 or 5 Sony Centers, there are little to no Sony Vaio chargers.

Why not use a universal charger, you may ask. Well, because Sony Vaios are so great and high-end and pretty, that the normal universal chargers don’t work on them… I’ve tried, about 4 different models! The guy from the place I tried to buy the charger from called a colleague, that’s how I found out they really don’t work on this series of laptops.

How will the problem be solved? Well, they placed an order, I’ll have my charger in two days. It sucks as this is my work computer, with all my files, billing software, etc. So what did Sony do wrong? They were nice enough to look for the charger in all their centers from Romania, found one, ordered it, I’ll go buy it in a few days. Problem solved!

Not exactly: if you provide a laptop that does not like universal chargers, you should make sure that in the largest city of Romania you have a few extras at all time. Otherwise, the next time I buy a new laptop, I might go with a different brand. Sony Vaio is not a cheap brand. It’s designed for business people. The kind that use their laptops intensively and are dead without them. Or they might be alive, but without purpose.

So what happens after your customer buys the product is very important if you want to make sure they buy from you again and again. We all agree that return customers are the greatest. But keeping them happy after the sale isn’t limited to providing amazing customer service. Availability of spare parts and making things move fast is as important. If you have this huge channel targeting new customers, old ones will end up feeling overlooked, unappreciated, upset. And if there’s anything they did not like about your product before, that will become a deal breaker all of the sudden.

Will I buy a Vaio next time? I honestly don’t know. I was pretty sure beofre all this hassle.

Monday Reading Roundup Take#17

Alina Popescu — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:05:54 +0000

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

Today is Wolrd AIDS Day and also Romania’s National Day! Thank you all for joining me on this week’s monday reading list on such a special occasion!

We’re all crazy about all things social media, both general and niche. But while there are plenty of niche social media sites, only a few can be considered successful. What differentiates a good site from a bad one? Find out on Traffikd.

When you run a business blog, turning your readers into buyers is one of your major goals. Danny Thompson of Busines and Blogging explains how to achieve your goal without annoying your readers through shamless sales pitches.

Cath Lawson discusses the “Free” concept. Find out more about when and how offering free producs or services helps your business.

In a guest post on Women on Business, Mark Tewart teaches 4 politically incorrect lessons aimed at helping women succeed in their career. Go on and read it, it really is wonderful advice!

Businesses count on holiday sales to increase their incomes. But with this year’s recession on our doors, it looks like holiday sales won’t be as easy as before. So here are some tips from Noobpreneur to get sales in this year’s season.

Comparisons seem like the perfect way to get a clear image of our own accomplishments. Yet most of the times, given interests, abilities and fields are extremely different, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Michael Martine explains why comparisons are not good for your blog’s (or business’) health.

The economic downturn is driving everyone to cost reduction. Costs are diminished, while also trying to boost sales. In this economic environment, consultants, coaches and creatives still need to maintain their current rates. Here’s a simple Q&A post aimed at helping you keep your rates and still get business from Barbara Rozgonyi.

Ian Lurie has done it again: another post that will make you laugh to tears yet still be extremely useful. A guide for an SEO’s wife/girlfriend/significant other to the perfect Christmas Gift!

Brian Fetherstonhaugh of OgilvyOne has launched an interesting theory on how the 4Ps of Marketing (Product, Placement, Price, Promotion) have become the 4Es (Experience, Everyplace, Exchange, Evangelism). To get you started, read Katherine Liews’s (Brand Curve) review of this theory first.

That’s it for today! Don’t forget to add your recommendations in the comment box