If you want business, you have to be willing to do what it takes to get it. The days of sitting back and waiting for your phone to ring are over (and have been over for a long time). Not only do you need to actively look for new opportunities, you need to know when and how to negotiate. Why let some new business walk out the door, when you could easily come to some sort of agreement. I think many businesses hide behind policy, and don’t empower their employees enough to negotiate with prospects (which is a whole other problem).

Policy is usually there for a good reason, but in today’s marketplace, business people need to be flexible enough to understand that one size doesn’t fit all anymore. Sometimes there are exceptions to rules, and at the end of the day you have to do what you can to keep business coming in. If you are a decision maker at your company, please look at your current policies and see if there is something there that could be hurting your business. Better yet, call up your salespeople (or whoever interacts with clients the most) and ask them what they think. You may find something that needs to be updated or changed.

Being aggressive doesn’t mean offering deep discounts or huge concessions. Obviously you need to know when to say no. However, think about your competition. If they are passive and you are active, who do you think is going to get the business? If they say no to a client, and you say yes, who do you think just made a new client? Look for opportunities like this in your market, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

The bottom line? In business, or any other kind of competition for that matter, effective aggression is one of your biggest allies. What do you guys think? Am I full of it?

I read an article in the Dallas Morning News today about retailers using Facebook as a platform for building online stores. You can read the article online here. People have been attempting to monetize social media since the phenomenon began, but this is the most direct effort I’ve seen. With over 50 million people active on Facebook, there’s plenty of incentive for retailers to get in on the action. However, I think that it would be a mistake to only focus on sales, and therefore overlook the social aspects of Facebook.

Why are retailers doing this? According to the article which quoted Henry Wong (CEO of Adgregate Markets) “Because this is where the customer is hanging out. They’re not hanging out on websites.” Hmmm, why could it be that customers aren’t hanging out on websites? Could it be that mindset which refers to visitors as customers? I think that has alot to do with it. It’s been a while since I’ve visited a website with no advertising; one that isn’t just trying to sell me something. Facebook is a place where people go to goof off and check in on friends that they may not see on a daily basis. No one goes to Facebook thinking, wow, I hope I can find something to buy. Retailers need to be aware of this and remember not to press the sale too hard. Otherwise, they could force visitors to move on to other time wasting websites.

The big boys are doing it, but what about small business? I think that Facebook and social media in general could be a fantastic avenue for small businesses to create awareness and even sell their products (or services). Why? Back in the old days, if you wanted to sale something, you advertised. If your advertising budget was substantially larger than your competitor (and you weren’t a total buffoon) then you would take home more profits. Today though, when a youtube video of some kid playing a video game can go viral and generate hundreds of thousands of views, it seems like there’s a more level playing field. There’s nothing to stop small businesses from taking advantage of social media to generate sales, and if they are creative about it, they could even outsell some of their bigger and badder competitors.

So, is “social retailing” the obvious next step in monetizing your social media success? Actually, I think it is. It’s a fact in business that if business can make money doing something that isn’t against the law (even that doesn’t stop some) then they will do it. Retailers can and will sell on Facebook, and they will generate some income. The bottom line though is that people only have a finite amount of disposable income, and I don’t think setting up another sales channel (which incidentally will compete with your own storefront / website) is going to have a dramatic effect on sales unless retailers start getting creative in leveraging the social aspects of social media.

Think I’m full of it? You know what to do.

We all know that a good website is essential to branding and marketing your company online. Here is a list of the seven different types of websites that currently exist…

The informational / brochure site: This type of page is intended to provide information to the user. They usually include a home page, products page, FAQ, testimonials, and a contact us page.

Opt-In page: This type of site is designed to collect contact information from a user. In many cases there will be some sort of offer; a discount, access to additional information, a special bonus offer, etc. The page provides just enough information to get the user interested in “opting in”. This can be a good way to develop prospects for a sales team, or sign people up for an email list.

The Sales page: This type of site includes a compelling offer and a strong call to action. If a site has a shopping cart, it is a sales page.

Blog: A page that uses video, audio, and text to create content based around different topics. The page you are on right now is a blog (thanks for visiting by the way).

Membership site: This is a type of site where specific (usually paying) customers are given access to special information or content. Usually the content is protected by some sort of password protection or login process.

Portal site: When a company owns many different brands, sometimes a portal site is needed. A portal site provides links to different websites all connected by some topic or company.

Social network: Sites like Facebook and linkedin. These sites bring users together in a way that they can interact with each other.

When you create your website, you need to think about what your goals are for the site. This will help you determine which type of site (or combination) you create.

What do you guys think? Did I leave any out?

In this link, Robert Middleton (founder of Action Plan Marketing) discusses an interesting tactic in pricing. I’ve actually heard this one before from a sales person I used to work with. Just like all sales people, he constantly had to face clients unwilling or unable to pay the price for the product or service he was selling. I asked him what he did in those situations and he told me “tell them you can lower the price, by taking away one of the features.”

I was amazed by the simplicity. But you know what? It works. Lower the value of your product, and then the price will follow. It takes you the same amount of time and money to produce the product; it takes the same amount of work and effort. Why should the price be lowered? Especially in these troubled economic times, most customers will be willing to do a little extra work if it will save them money. If they aren’t then they are basically valuing their time over yours.

Another tactic that Robert discusses in the link is to create tiered levels of the product or service. You know, Platinum, Gold, or Silver (hopefully you have more creative names than that, but you know what I’m talking about). Once the client has bought in on the value of what you offer and is ready to discuss price, the discussion becomes “which of these do you want” rather than “do you want it or not”. 

Agree / Disagree? Hit that comments button below or email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com

If you’re in business, then you want to make a profit. Let’s break this down, there are basically three variables that control profit… costs, sales, and price. Profit, by definition, is revenue (sales x price) - costs. While most companies spend a ton of time and effort cutting costs, and improving advertising / marketing / sales activities, most do not spend this same time and effort on pricing practices. Personally I don’t really understand this. Pricing is just as important as the other variables, and can also affect your sales volume (a more effective price will naturally result in an increase in sales).

Lately companies have been focusing more and more on cutting costs in order to improve their “bottom line”. Cost cutting has been refined down to an exact science (though many cost cutting efforts in fact have a negative effect on profit, but that’s a whole other story). Likewise, most companies are constantly working on new marketing efforts, some more effective than others. However, when it comes to pricing many companies wing it; they base prices on the wrong things, or even worse, they don’t have a person that decides on pricing strategy.

Most companies have a chief financial officer,a director of sales, and a director of marketing. Why not have someone in charge of pricing. Every company should have someone who’s sole purpose in life is to define the pricing strategies for each product. Make sure they use actual methods, and aren’t just pulling prices out of the air.

A finely tuned bs detector is a must in today’s marketplace. It’s that thing in the back of your mind that lets you know that the person sitting across from you is totally full of it. We’ve all been there before, and some of us are better at detecting bs than others. It comes with experience. Unfortunately this means that you’ve probably been burned by these con artists before, but as former president George Bush would say “fool me once… shame on… shame on you… fool me… you can’t get fooled again.”

I’ve been burned before, but I’ve learned from those hard lessons, and you should too. Here are the top phrases that activate my bs detector:

• “The product sells itself” - This is by far the top phrase on my list. If the product sells itself why are you talking to me? Products are sold through the efforts of many individuals, from the people that research and design the product, to the team that distributes, prices and promotes the product, to the people that finally sell the product and so on. If the product sells itself, then good luck to you sir/madam, you don’t need to waste my time or anyone else’s for that matter.
• “I subscribe to ethical business principles” - An honest person doesn’t brag about being honest. If we’re doing business, I’m going to assume you are being honest… unless you say something like this. If someone says this or one of it’s variants to you, run as fast and as far as you can. I’ve learned the hard way that the ones that claim to be ethical are usually the most crooked.
• “This is non-negotiable” - You can negotiate anything. It’s actually the title of a very good book that I will probably discuss in the future (thanks for the recommendation David). If you are not willing to negotiate, then I’ll do business with someone who is, especially since this phrase is usually said before or after something that is unfavorable to me.

There are just too many phrases that I’ve heard that make my bs detector go off, which is why there’s a “part 1” in the title. I’m sure this topic will be revisited in the future.

Let me know what makes your detector sound off at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com