How to Avoid Unpaid Consulting Using the Monkeys Paw

Posted on October 12, 2011 by admin

I learned about the “Monkey’s Paw” concept through the Sandler system sales training that I have been taking. I thought I would share what I have learned with you because many of you have shared the same frustrations with me about being “shopped around.”

The Monkeys paw concept alludes to a structure that you can set up with prospects that enables you to get paid for all proposal development and consulting that you do beyond your initial phone call or meeting with a prospect.

Typically, business owners, when working with prospects, provide detailed proposals for free just because clients or prospects ask for them. Oftentimes, prospects then take your detailed proposals, many of which take several hours or more to complete, and shop those around to other vendors. Or worse, they invite you back in for another round of questions, and gather more information that they can use to shop around. This leaves many business owners with many hours of unpaid, free consulting, and no income to show for it.

Needless to say, the small business owner, cannot survive in business by giving away all this free time. By creating and using the monkey’s paw approach, you offer your work as a credit back to the prospect against any proposal that is presented if they engage you in the full service, regardless of what options they pick. If they choose to not work with you, at least you get paid for the work that you did. This approach should be used with both existing and new clients and will, if used consistently, prohibit you from giving favors to existing clients.

We all want to be helpful to our clients, but at the same time- we have to make our clients realize that detailed time spent on their proposals (and meetings) is time taken away from our other reimbursable work and has value.

For more ideas on how to stop doing free consulting using the Sandler sales system see Wayne’s companion article titled “Stop Doing Free Consulting.”

Track Who is Mentioning You on Twitter with TweetBeep

Posted on September 14, 2011 by admin

If you want to track conversations that mention you, your products, or your company than you should consider Tweetbeep.com. It is a very useful online reputation management tool.

Tweetbeep can give you hourly updates on who is tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL, like bit.ly or tinyurl.com. It tracks @mentions and @replies as well.

The service is free but the premium service costs $20/month and has some nice features such as a 15 minute alert option, and you don’t have to put up with any advertisements like you do in the free version.

To register go to www.tweetbeep.com

How do I Add Videos to my Twitter Posts? Use Twitvid

Posted on August 16, 2011 by admin

Currently, within Twitter, there is no built in way to add videos to your tweets but there is a free service that you can use if you want to add videos called Twitvid.

Twitvid allows you to add videos to your tweets. This is a game changer for those businesses looking to build relationships with their clients.

Adding videos allows you to:

Add a face and personality to your tweets
Engage more in depth with prospects or clients
Demonstrate features or benefits of your products or services
Reinforce your expertise in your profession or field of practice

To use Twitvid you log-in to the site with your Twitter credentials, and then you can use it as a Twitter client. You choose a video to upload from your computer (web cam support is coming shortly) and enter a Twitter message of 117 characters or less (to make room for the video URL). TwitVid then sends this tweet out to your followers once the video is done uploading and encoding.

You can post a video from most mobile devices by just emailing their video from your mobile to u@twitvid.io. You will have to link an e-mail account, which you can do before or after e-mailing them the video.

If you do use video in your tweets I recommend a couple things. First, that you always have your company name, domain name, and contact information at the end of the video so people can contact you, and second, that you keep the video length to 90 seconds or less.

Social Media Automation Tools

Posted on July 25, 2011 by admin

When I ask my clients if they are using social media their first reaction is to complain to me that they don’t have time to keep up with their social media sites. Apparently, they are unaware that there are automation tools out there that can help them save time, be more responsive, and productive.

One such tool, SocialOomph provides social media users with productivity tools for Twitter, StatusNet, and Facebook. Facebook users can schedule status updates that can be published at any future dates and times.

Social Oomph has both free and paid versions. Formerly known as Tweet Later, it allowed users to schedule Twitter posts. Social Oomph has more features and serves as a hub for a number of social media accounts. It also allows you to automate the process of following and messaging. And for those who want to track mentions of your keywords on Twitter- it will send you email notifications so you can get some timely information.

Many people find that the free services has the features they need such as:

Automatically following, unfollowing and can send a message to new followers

Social oomph allows you to automatically follow those who follow you, unfollow those who unfollow you, and send out thank you messages.

Get information on your @ mentions/replies and retweets

You can you receive a daily email, usually sent within 12 hours of all your @replies and see who has reposted your content and find out all you mentions/replies on Twitter.

Schedule your tweets

You can schedule your posts and also search your previous tweets to find information to retweet.

Receive keyword alerts

You can set up to receive email alerts for up to 50 keyword terms sent via email 1-2 times per day.

Tracks your posted links—Built in URL shortening and analytics tool that links to a Bit.ly account via API, and can provide stats on activity

Set up multiple welcome messages You can set up a few different messages for new followers.

Approval/Vetting- You have the option of manually approving a prospective follower

More detailed Twitter profile listing inside of Social Oomph. You can create a more detailed Twitter profile so people can more easily find and follow you.

It should be noted that Twitter tools has many of these useful features as well.

If you upgrade to the professional version of Social Oomph for about $30 a month, you can define your own channels. Submit Social Updates via Email, Schedule & Publish Blog Posts and Pages, Manage DMs With Automatic Spam Control, Manage Many Accounts with TweetCockpit, Schedule @replies and Direct messages.

Some criticism of Social Oomph is that the layout is not the most user-friendly or easy to navigate as say some alternatives like Hootsuite. Hootsuite will help manage your Facebook, LinkedIn and ping.fm accounts and also has its own iPhone app. Many people use both applications as there are advantages and disadvantages of each-so you may want to explore Hootsuite as well.

The bottom line is that if you are serious about having an ongoing social media presence to help brand and grow your business then you need to use these productivity tools to help you save time and improve communication with others online.

Do you use Social Oomph or Hootsuite?

What works for you?

Rank High on Google by Improving Page Speed

Posted on June 8, 2011 by admin

Among the 200 page rank factors used by Google in their ranking algorithm is page load time, or page speed; the amount of time pages on our website or blog take to load up. By testing and correcting any errors in coding you can improve the experience for your website visitors and help with search rankings.

There are a number of tools that can tell you your speed, and some, like the one in Google Webmaster tools can even tell you exactly how you rank in relation to others. The Google tool also gives suggestions for optimizing the speed of the site.

The most common types of errors/suggestions that I have observed on sites we’ve looked at include:

Combining CSS files and compressing large files, such as videos and images.
Combining external JavaScript
Minimizing DNS lookups
Enabling gzip compression
Changing your server to a dedicated server to deal with elements included from other servers, particularly javascript elements.

In addition to Google, WordPress has a number of free Page Speed Plugins as well.

There are also free tools at Pingdom.com, http://zoompf.com/free , Firebug, and http://www.iwebtool.com/speed_test

Not all web designers understand search engine optimization (SEO), even though they say they know it. Consequently, they may make errors in coding the site or loading files. By paying attention to, testing and addressing these page load or page speed issues you can make the visitor experience better on your website and make sure that you can achieve the highest rankings possible on search engines.

Dropsend: Send and Store Large Files By Email

Posted on May 9, 2011 by admin

One problem that many of my clients have is not being able to send or receive large files. Here is one solution that I recommend for this problem.

DropSend is a software tool that allows users to send large files via email, through a small desktop client. DropSend has been available since 2005 and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. The service can send files of up to 2GB in size, up to 5 sends per month, has 250MB of free storage, and is available with 256bit AES Security.

The paid accounts start at $5 per month and have features such as the ability to send to unlimited recipients, online storage, unlimited sends, on demand file backup, send multiple files and folders, drag and drop support, and delivery confirmation to name a few.

I find that Dropsend is easy to use because it has both desktop and mobile application integration for both Mac and Windows. You can leave Dropsend in the dock and when needed, just drop files into it. Then you can either send them or upload them for storage.

Being a former yousendit.com user, I find that Dropsend a great alternative because yousendit.com only allows you to send 100MB free and offers no free storage.

Check it out at www.dropsend.com

How To Use Heatmaps for Analytics

Posted on April 6, 2011 by admin

This months cool tech tool is Crazy Egg. At www.crazyegg.com, Crazy Egg is an analytics tool that uses a heatmap; a graphical overlay of your website which points out what content is drawing the visitor’s attention and what content is not. This is done primarily by tracking mouse clicks of the visitor.

Crazy Egg makes it possible to analyze both the clicking behavior of the visitor while the eye-tracking heatmap shows you where people actual look on your web page. Crazy Egg then generates a heat map that is overlaid on your site, allowing you to visualize and understand exactly what calls to action are working.

There are many reasons that this information is helpful. This knowledge can help you in testing various promotions, pictures, videos to see their effect. If elements of your website or landing page are not working you can then try alterative promotions, advertisements, calls to action, pictures, or color combinations.

As far as cost; Crazy Egg is not a free service and requires a monthly subscription starting at $9/month to track up to 10 pages, to up to $99 for 100pages. There are free alternatives to Crazy Egg such as Clickheat by Labs Media,

Feng-Gui and WordPress plug-ins http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/heatmap/installation/.

Clearly, if you are not using some form of tracking on your website then you will never know what is working and what is not. You are also missing out on opportunities to try new approaches for converting website visitors into prospects, and ultimately losing money to the competition.

Have you tried Crazy Egg or other heatmaps to track visitors? If so, let us know of your experiences.

10 Tips for Getting Started in Blogging

Posted on January 19, 2011 by admin

Blogger

You have decided you want to start a blog. Now what? Where do you start?

Here are 10 tips for getting started in blogging:

Meet with your staff and make a list of topics (categories) that are of interest and relevant to the people you’re trying to reach. What questions do your clients ask regularly? Search competitors for ideas
Decide on the frequency of your postings and create a schedule. The suggested minimum amount of time to blog is monthly. Blogging bi-weekly is better, and weekly is best
Decide who is responsible for blogging in your company and incorporate that into their job description and goals
Conduct keyword research using Google keyword tool to ensure that you include some relevant keywords in the title and first few sentences of the article
Select a picture(s) that would complement the article and add visual interest
Create a short summary of the article
Decide if you want to accept comments on the article or not. If you do, then you will need to review and respond to all comments, including spam comments
Take time to optimize the post by identifying keywords used in the article and linking some text to your website text.
Add an RSS feed to your blog and website so people can receive your new posts automatically
Let people know you wrote an article by putting a link to it on your facebook, twitter, or linkedin updates.

Once you start blogging you need to continue because when blogging you are building trust. For blogging to work- you need to be consistent. If you find you cannot do it yourself consistently then hire a professional who can do it for you as it is well worth the investment if done correctly. What many people find is that the more they do it, the more topics they want to write about and it just becomes a part of their routine. Blogging regularly can help increase your web traffic by up to 55% and get you on top of the web search results so don’t delay-get started blogging today.

Better New Years Resolutions; 8 Tips for Setting Marketing Goals in 2010

Posted on August 11, 2010 by waynekessler

Better New Years Resolutions; 8 Tips for Setting Marketing Goals in 2010
Many of us still believe that it is important to start the new year off right, to set and achieve a personal or professional goal, to do something we’ve been wanting to do all last year but never got around to doing it. And there is value to that goal focused thinking…for some. Because the reality is, statistically speaking, only 22% of men and only 14% of women are actually likely to keep their resolutions.
Over the years, many friends, family and colleagues have attempted to lose weight, stop smoking, and exercise more. And many of my clients, or prospective clients have expressed an interest in expanding their marketing plan to include things like creating an enewsletter, updating and optimizing their website, or using social networking sites like Linkedin and Facebook to build relationships and generate leads.
Occasionally, I will ask these people about their progress in keeping their resolutions, and I have heard a variety of explanations most of which are symptomatic of either a lack of will power, a shift in priorities, attention deficit disorder, procrastination, or some combination thereof.
Some of the main reasons experts give for people not achieving their goals are that the goals are either not specific enough, not measurable, not achievable or agreed upon by all involved, not realistic or relevant, or not time-based or trackable. In short, the goals were not created and monitored correctly.
In an effort to help people to create and achieve their goals- I offer the following 8 Tips for setting marketing goals in 2010:
• Tip#1 Break down a larger goal into a series of achievable, measurable goals
• Tip#2 Put time frames on the achievement of these goals
• Tip#3 Identify and enlist the people that can help you reach these goals
• Tip#4 Make sure that each person understands expectations around goal completion dates and their responsibility or role
• Tip#5 Write action steps and deliverable dates into your daily schedule and remind others of key milestone dates
• Tip#6 Deal with barriers to completion immediately, and modify goals as needed
• Tip#7 Make a list of rewards for yourself and others when you have reached your goals and reward yourself and others when goals are achieved
• Tip#8 Create and regularly update a visual display, e.g. graph, or chart, indicating progress on goal completion

Forget the old approach to goal setting and New Years resolutions. It simply does not work for most people. By creating specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based goals and by having visual reminders and rewards for goal completion-we can ensure our success in 2010.
Questions:
What works for you in setting or achieving goals?

How do you motivate team members to help you achieve a shared goal?

What rewards or incentives have you used that have worked?

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

Groupons: Are Group Coupons Right for Your Business?

Posted on July 12, 2010 by admin

You might have seen the Facebook ads or Twitter ads for Groupons and wondered what they were and whether it makes sense for your business. This article describes what Groupons are and how Groupons work to help you decide if it is worth the time and money to advertise with Groupon.

Put simply, Groupons are group coupons that are offered daily in various cities on their website Groupon.com for everything from restaurants to beauty salons and spas.

The origin of Groupon goes back to November of 2008 when they were part of The Point, a platform for collective action still in use today. In 2008, The Point was being used to organize group purchase discounts for items such as magazine subscriptions. Today the site runs “campaigns” that users can participate.

Here’s how Groupon works:

1. Businesses offer highly discounted services through Groupon.com packaged as exclusive daily “deals.” The deals offer a discount in the range of 40-60 percent.

2. Consumers have a short time to purchase online, they must pay in advance, and the offer only goes through if a specified number of Groupons are sold.

3. When the specified number is reached, the consumer is charged and they are then sent an e-mail containing a link to print the coupon, known as the Groupon.

4. Groupon keeps half the revenue that consumers pay online, leaving the restaurant with about 25 percent.

According to Groupon-the site is increasing in popularity among business owners. There are reports that in Chicago, for example, they have a backlog of 120 deals waiting to be featured. And they further report that 97% of those who use their service request using the service again.

Is the Groupon right for your business? This is something that you must evaluate based on a number of factors. Here are five suggested questions businesses should consider before trying Groupon:

1. Does offering your goods or services at a discounted rate detract from your company branding image?

2. Is the customer brought in by the Groupon a target market you want to bring in?

3. What strategies could you employ to convert the Groupon customer into a loyal customer?

4. What additional special offers could you offer the Groupon customer to get them to purchase more goods or services and keep them coming back.

5. What restrictions do you want to place on the Groupon such as “must be redeemed by August 1st, only valid for 1st time customers, canot be combined with other coupons,etc.

Some potential advantages of using the Groupon appear to be in bringing in new customers from a wider, yet still local geographic area, and increased advertising and branding exposure on the internet and on social media outlets.

Ideally, for those who use the Groupon as a form of advertising- one must evaluate this from a cost benefit analysis by analyzing metrics they put in place to answer these questions.

Have you used Groupon for advertising for your business?

Have you used it as a customer?

What is your experience with it?