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Small Businesses Blogging Best Practices

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:56:00 +0000

Blogging is one of the most important things you can do to help your website attract more visitors. Blogs are important because two key factors for how search engines rank sites are the depth and freshness of content. Blogs allow you to expand the depth of knowledge your site contains, and posting over time ensures that you consistently have fresh (new) content online. We are often asked by clients what the best way to do this is. This guide is written to help small businesses get the most from blogs on their websites. Here are some of the most common questions new bloggers have, and their answers.

How often should I blog?
The quick answer is, "As often as possible." The more you blog, the more content search engines will find, and the more likely your site is to appear in the top results for the topics about which you write. We have found that blogging one or twice a week is usually sufficient for the goals of most small businesses. It is important to balance your blogging efforts against the other demands for your time. Be sure to not abandon other initiatives in favor of blogging, and not abandon blogging in favor of other initiatives. You can set aside time to create many blog posts at once that you then schedule to post over time, so even if you are unable to schedule time to post every week, you can still have your posts appear online on a regular basis.

What topics should I discuss?
This is dependent on your business, but it's best to discuss things that your customers and prospects will find interesting, more than those topics you find interesting. If you are a retailer, it's great to discuss the products you sell. If you are a manufacturer, discuss the products you make, and if you are a service based business, discuss the services you provide.

Beyond these topics, however, is where the real value in your blog lies to your audience. Write about the use of the products you sell, produce, or support. Write about unique solutions they provide to common problems. When you write blog posts, try to use the terms that someone would type when looking for your solutions. This will help with search rankings. It is far more valuable to discuss the problem that your business solves than it is the solution that you offer.

How long should my blog posts be?
Again, this varies on your business and the type of blog post that it is. If it is a post describing a common problem that someone has, it should be long enough to make reading it worthwhile, but not so long that a visitor is presented with a "wall of text" when they arrive at the page. 3-4 paragraphs are usually sufficient for this type of post. If it is one that describes the solution in detail, then it may be a bit longer, since you have more information to convey. If it is a post that is just providing a quick thought on a subject, you can get away with 1-2 paragraphs. Write as much as is needed to get across the point you are trying to make, and no more.

What else should I have in my blog?
One thing that works very well is recaps/reviews of other online content. You can include a few sentences from another online article, provide a link back to the source, and write your thoughts on the topic discussed. These types of reviews/recaps are very effective, and often work well at inspiring others to provide some feedback. To be valuable, your comments on the article should be at least as long as the content you include as a quote.

Another effective type of blog content is video- you can use a cell phone or web cam these days to easily create a basic video that helps you provide a more dynamic type of content to your readers. Videos are great as product reviews, unboxing demonstrations of retail products, showing how something is manufactured, demonstrating problems your services solve, etc. Videos should be less than two minutes in length, and any content that appears in the video should also appear in text form in your blog post. This is because search engines can't index your video, they can only index the text you provide, so make sure you have a text write up to accompany the video that contains all of the important ideas.

Lastly, it is important to have a call to action in your blog. This can be encouraging readers to share the post with others, asking them for feedback, encouraging them to sign up for e-mail updates, asking them to buy your product, etc. It is important that once you have provided your readers with some valuable information that they are then presented with a next step to take.

How do I get people to see my blog posts?
One of the best ways to promote your blog is to use it in conjunction with your other social media efforts. Luckily, there are two tools that are free to use that assist you with distributing your blog to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media profiles. You can use www.dlvr.it or www.twitterfeed.com to do this. After an initial setup process, every time you publish a blog post a copy will be sent to your social networks. This provides visibility to your blog, and an additional way for someone to provide feedback, since most persons are more likely to comment on a Facebook post or reply to a tweet than they are to comment on a blog.

We hope these tips help you with your blogging efforts. Please let us know if you need any assistance with setting or managing your own blog. Contact us at info@sbanetwork.org with any questions or comments.

Social Media Integration

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:11:00 +0000

If a status update is made with no one to read it, did it really happen?

This is obviously an adaptation of the old “If a tree falls in the woods” parable to modern day, but the sentiment holds true. Statistics show that the vast majority of status updates and tweets go unread or are ignored. So that begs the question- if no one is reading it, what’s the point?

While most small businesses have jumped on the social media bandwagon and have established profiles on the major sites (Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Google Places, etc.), many utilize these accounts in a vacuum that is completely separate from their actual website. Doing so limits the chances that any interaction that occurs on these sites will be noticed by those that are most important. It also means that any updates, blog posts, and other website additions will go unseen on the networks that make sharing this content incredibly easy.

The solution to these problems is integration- it is vitally important that you tie your social media profiles into your website, or you end up with content that is only available to a small subset of potential viewers. Integration also makes it easier to share your content across multiple networks with minimal effort, thus decreasing the amount of time you need to spend managing your accounts.

Integration Tips
There are some easy ways to make all of this happen. I will assume that you have a website with a blog and that you already have social media accounts with Facebook and Twitter. If you do not have these already and need help setting them up, please let us know- we can help!

Facebook- make sure that all of your blog posts have Facebook “Like” or “Recommend” buttons. You can review the code needed to add these to your website at: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/ These buttons will allow readers of your blog to share your posts with their existing Facebook friends with one click, and is normally a simple copy-paste to get these buttons added. Many blogging platforms have plugins that will add this code for you without having to even utilize the Facebook code directly.

Twitter- again, make sure that all of your posts have “Tweet” buttons, which allow a visitor to share your content with their Twitter followers with one click. You can review the code needed to make this happen at: https://twitter.com/about/resources/tweetbutton These buttons will let a user send out a tweet about your blog post quickly and easily. Many blog platforms have simple plug and play options for sharing that enable this option without using the Twitter code directly. I also recommend adding a Twitter “badge” to your website, which will let someone view your Twitter feed on your website (so they don’t even need a Twitter account to read it!) You can find the necessary code to do so at: https://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets

Status updates across platforms- you can share the same status update on multiple networks through various means. One is to tie your profiles together directly, so that any Tweet you make appears on Facebook as well, and vice versa. A more useful means of doing so, however, is to use a service such as http://ping.fm. This site will let you post an update to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Myspace, etc. all at the same time. This means that when you reply to comments on these networks, you can do so individually, and not have your Twitter response get sent to Facebook users that are only seeing part of the conversation.

Blog syndication- using the RSS feed that your blog has, you can syndicate it to your networks. You can add an RSS feed on a Linked In profile, and post your content to Facebook, Twitter, etc. One site that lets you do this is http://www.twitterfeed.com and another that also works is http://www.dlvr.it These sites both make it so that when you post new content to your blog, the first few sentences are posted to your social media profiles with a link to the full content.

I hope these resources make integrating your social media sites into your website easier for you, and we are available to help you make this happen.

The Importance of Family Businesses in America

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:15:00 +0000

Family businesses are the most influential factor in the health of the U.S. economy and they are the ONLY solution to our difficult economic times.

This statement might surprise many people but consider the statistics. According to Family Business Review Magazine (Summer 1996) family businesses comprise 80% of all business enterprises in North America. They account for 60% of total U.S. employment, 78% of all new jobs, 65% of wages paid (Financial Planning Magazine, Nov 1999) and 34% of these companies are listed on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. With those stats as a backdrop, it’s not surprising that nearly 40% of family businesses in America will be passing the reigns to the next generation over the next five years according to Business Week Magazine (August 11, 2003).

Yet the most incredible statistic by far was the one postulated by Robert Avery at Cornell University in his paper, “The Ten Trillion Dollar Question: A Philanthropic Gameplan.” Avery noted that by 2050, virtually all closely held and family owned businesses will lose their primary owner to death or retirement. Approximately $10.4 trillion of net worth will be transferred by the year 2040, with $4.8 trillion in the next 20 years.

The plain fact is that family businesses are in trouble because succession plans are quite obviously less and less effective. This is primarily due to what I call the “motive gap” between generations. According to an article appearing in the Boston Globe on May 4, 2003, only 40% of family owned businesses survive to the second generation, 12% to the third, and 3% to the fourth. It s also a known fact that these companies are most successful when run by a family member. Family members have the passion, drive and purest motives to run the company in a way consistent with the founding member. While some of these companies will be successfully sold to those outside the family, these statistics represent a disturbing trend and concern for the future of family businesses and the American economy in general!

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the root of this problem, simply said, is that sons and daughters are not interested in taking over the family business. Now this may well be attributable to other interests and passions. Certainly this is understandable but it does beg the question of WHY they may not interested or excited about learning the ropes and assuming the reigns? I can tell you that after personally working with thousands of family businesses and in may cases counseling numerous reluctant second or third generation leaders this stems from significant generational differences. These differences can easily be reconciled but often both parties (parents as well as sons and daughters) seem to be completely oblivious as to the differences. The result of generational differences are often mistaken as ineffective work habits, personality flaws or other personal characteristic or attributes. Yet more often than not simply becoming aware of the differences in generational decision making, communication and leadership styles can resolve conflict and restore trust and continued harmony in the business.

This allows the business to thrive even in difficult circumstances.

If you're in a family business and are interested in succession planning, send me an e-mail and request my free whitepaper on family businesses.

Building Bench Skills vs. Traditional Succession Planning

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:28:00 +0000

Traditional succession planning is often a waste of time. Let's face it, "plans" themselves, although filled with good intention, often fail to create change in an organization. The idea of "planning" focuses on a process rather than a specific goal or outcome. Most company leaders that I know are so busy with the day-to-day issues of running their business that the idea of spending time thinking through a "process" often takes a backseat to critical items like customer complaints, new product development, making financial decisions, addressing employee requirements and more. Perhaps we need to think about succession planning more as a way to develop bench skills in executives with great promise. In other words, as a first step, we need to ask ourselves the question; "how do we help key leaders in the organization build the skills needed to step into critical future roles?" If we think about succession in this way there is a greater chance that these plans will be executed.

The next step is to find a way to measure the execution of these "people development" outcomes in the same way we measure sales, profit, employee retention, cash flow and ROI. These are very practical outcomes that are far more tangible. This requires that we clearly define the "skill gap" for every leader. This needs to be a function of each leaders self-evaluation as well as the evaluation of their immediate report. For example, the VP of Sales and Marketing may want to work with the Director of Sales to assist her in clearly defining her "personal development outcomes." I am not talking about the outcomes such as revenue creation or unit sales production or percentage growth of a particular client segment but rather her personal soft-skill capabilities. That is her competency level in performing more effectively as a leader in dealing with the people issues required in the role of VP of Sales and Marketing. This might be her ability to recruit more effectively, create harmony in her department or to make better decisions or even to speak in a more professional or inspiring way. These very quantifiable capabilities are bench skills which will allow this Director of Sales to become a more viable candidate for a future VP position. Frankly we tend to overlook these kind of outcomes and certainly few organizations have metrics in place to evaluate them. We simply hope that emerging leaders will develop these people skills by mere osmosis! Without this kind of deliberate focus on these "developmental skills" how could this director ever move to the VP position?

In addition, in order to move from the Director of Sales position to the VP of Sales and Marketing, this director will need to work on developing some of the hard-skills required. For example when she moves from leading the sales group to that of also leading the marketing group, she will need to have an understanding and sensitivity of the marketing elements of the business. Where will she get this from? How will she be able to effectively lead this department if she has had only a minimal or cursory interface with this group? This creates the practical cross training need for this director to embrace some marketing projects while still in her role as Director of Sales. This might be the assignment of a simple marketing project or the integration in her current role with some elements of the marketing department. This is a deliberate attempt to build some hard skills in this area. This will not only help her to understand some of the functions of the marketing group this will also assist her in winning support from the people in this department when she does make the move up the hierarchy. It will also assist in building some of the relationships that are needed for the role change to take place. Again few organizations actually go to the extent of deliberately orchestrating this. In some cases this happens by accident but it is a messy affair often accompanied by confusion, resentment and frustration for everyone involved. Again more often than not this type of predetermined strategy is rarely put in place in a deliberate way.

In short taking a thoughtful approach to creating these kind of bench skills and outcomes is a far more effective way to create succession. So put aside the traditional succession planning map and look at your team now and their roles for the future. Where are the soft-skill gaps? Where are the hard-skill gaps? What kind of personal development should they be engaged in today to prepare them for the next step in career growth? How can you create some very tangible and measurable outcomes for these leaders? Where do they and the rest of your leadership team see these people fitting into the organization in the next 3, 5 or 10 years?

If you can answer these questions you are well on your way to creating a succession strategy that will reap rewards well into the future.

Taking Action

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:24:00 +0000

Imagine if we ran our businesses the way NATO runs a war. Moammar Gadhafi is clearly a "bad guy." No one denies that. Yet a dozen of the most powerful nations in the world can't seem to agree on how to deal with him. Meanwhile this nutcase is killing thousands of innocent people. The central issue is a lack of leadership and reticence to take decisive action. We must face this in our businesses every day. Our people are waiting for us to take decisive action and demonstrate leadership. Our clients are seeking a clear articulation of the value we provide and to give them a REASON to do business with us. Don't be like NATO. Take the bull by the horns and LEAD. The world is depending on you.

Transformational Leaders
Transformational Leaders overtly change organizations with an implied promise to followers that they also will be transformed in some way. When practiced effectively it enhances the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. In order to create followers a leader has to be very careful in winning genuine trust. Their personal integrity is a critical part of the package that they are selling. The following are some of the ways to practice transformational leadership:

Become the chief learner and inspirer
Listen to understand rather than respond
Set the example and take action
Learn the art of self-reflection

Brand What?
Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers. It is a reflection of your reputation. Communicating your brand so it inspires response is the challenge of every marketer. Yet many simply copy leading competitors. Successful branding must differentiate your solution and clearly identify the "market gap" which you quite uniquely or even EXCLUSIVELY occupy. What makes YOU, you?

When SEO Isn't Enough

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:25:00 +0000

Internet Marketing is essential for all types of businesses and professions today. At this point, many businesses are already engaged in at least a typical Search Engine Optimization plan based around finding external sites to link back to their own site, and having employees or an outsourced provider writing unique content to place online. A few years ago, this would have been sufficient to ensure a high ranking for nearly any search term. With recent advances in search technology, however, it is no longer good enough to rely on traditional Search Engine Optimization techniques. Below are some non-traditional ways of generating search traffic that can have an even bigger impact on your bottom line than link trades and content building.

Use Landing Pages:
Construct simple lead generating pages on your website that allow for detailed reporting on the results of your online efforts. These pages should be designed strictly to capture leads- it can look much different than your normal website, and you may even wish to have it on a separate domain name. Effective lead generating pages often look look less "polished" than full-fledged websites, and should focus on real images of your products, the benefits someone receives from using your services, testimonials from actual customers, and a call to action.

Ensure that local sites from Google and Yahoo are being used:
Google Places and Yahoo Local results are another area for you to generate web traffic. Go to google.com/places and yahoo.com/local to claim your business listings. You can add your hours of business, location, and web address. When you have ensured the accuracy of your listing, contact some clients and ask them to post honest reviews and comments on your profiles. You may wish to offer an incentive for them to do so.

Review sites:
Sites such as Yelp allow the Internet community to rate and comment on the work done by specific companies. Search for your company on Yelp.com, and see what existing reviews you have. Communicate with some existing clients to ask them to add their honest feedback. Again, you may wish to offer an incentive to get a significant number of responses.

Create video content:
Changes in search results pages now show videos by default, and if you don't have any video content, you're missing an opportunity to rank highly for some potentially valuable search terms. Videos that tend to work well are: before/after, testimonials, product maintenance, buying tips, and installation instructions. Creating one or two videos of each type will give you a good chance of having your site receive visits for your desired keywords.

Explore referral sites:
Sites such as Angie's List and Service Magic act as lead referral services, and they can be useful for some industries. Research referral sites for your business type and contact the sales departments to obtain a proposal for inclusion in their directories. Once you receive this information, evaluate their services and determine if they offer enough value to be included in your marketing campaign.

Expand your use of social media sites:
Crate profiles and log in to Twitter and Facebook daily and comment on interesting posts that other people put up. Being an active member of the community will raise your value on-line. If all you do is post your own content without interacting with others, they have no reason to engage with you when you do post content. Mark Cuban is a billionaire that runs a few highly successful companies, and he finds time to post to twitter and respond to blog comments every day, and he’s probably busier than just about anyone in the world of business. That’s one reason he’s so well liked- he interacts with anyone when he feels he can add something to a conversation. Interaction is what will help you turn connections on these sites into actual business.

Explore the possibility of using a group buying site:
The popularity of sites such as Groupon, Living Social, and Social Buy is at an all-time high. Contact a few of these sites and find out what type of deal you can offer that makes sense for both you and their network. If you can put together a reasonable offer and still be profitable on the deal, it is a way to reach a huge untapped audience. One note of caution- these sites are so popular these days that it's possible you could become overwhelmed by responses, so make sure that you can handle the rapid influx of business if you use one of these sites.

Measure your results:
Create some metrics and reports that allow you to track and draw conclusions from your efforts. Use the data and refine your efforts, determining which initiatives should be continued, which should be dropped, and what your next steps should be.

We hope these tips help you to refine your Internet Marketing efforts, and please contact us with any questions about how you can apply these techniques to your business.

This article was provided by SBA Network Technology Specialist Matt Walker. You can reach him at mwalker@sbanetwork.org.

The Right and Wrong Way to Lead

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:42:00 +0000

The quality of leadership is often the deciding factor between healthy or dysfunctional corporate cultures. When effective leadership is exercised, organizations leverage the very best performance from their people. This significantly increases their chances for gaining market advantage and maximizing profitability. We can usually spot ineffective leadership by observing a brief interaction between the leader and a team member. The short video below demonstrates precisely what I am talking about.

I made this little video to help us to be reminded of how important our language is in winning team performance. Effective leadership really boils down to adopting some very simple communication behaviors:

Try not to let your frustration show. It is not only a sign of weakness but it often telegraphs your lack of confidence or control.
Refrain from making judgments about your team members’ liabilities. As leaders it is our job to encourage them to reach for a higher level of performance not become fixated on their mistakes.
As my good friend Dr. Mitchell Perry would say, “Speak in the language of inclusion.” That means we should be talking about what they can or should be doing rather than focus on what they are NOT doing.
Be aware of your facial expressions and body language. Words only account for just 7% of the meaning in our communication. Far more critical is our tone of voice, non-verbal cues and facial communication.
Ask plenty of open-ended questions and LISTEN for what your people are REALLY trying to say.
Assume that your people can and WILL perform above your expectations rather will assuming they cannot.
Be willing to invest time with your people helping them through difficult situations or projects.

I hope this has been helpful to you in your quest for a higher level of leadership. I am interested in your ideas. Please give some feedback and I will share with all of our readers.

Accepting Online Payments

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:46:00 +0000

Here's a quick overview of the two main options you have when considering payments online. As someone that spent time on the board of directors of an e-commerce focused credit card processor, I've seen lots of options come and go in this industry. While shopping carts are common on websites and many come bundled with web hosting accounts, the methods to accept payment for bills are a bit rarer and can be trickier to implement. Your two primary options are to use a full service payment processor such as Google Checkout or PayPal, or to create your own solution that uses your own merchant account and a payment gateway you integrate with your website.

Here are the pros and cons of the two main options you have:

PayPal/Google Checkout:

These are both widely used online payment processors, so your clients are likely to have used them for making purchases from online stores or making online payments.
Security is outsourced to their servers, meaning you don’t need to worry about safeguards and regulations that require you to protect credit card and bank account information.
The fee structure is simple, and normally winds up costing less at low transaction volumes (less than a few hundred transactions per month)
Simple technical implementation- you are often able to get these up and running much faster than a system where you send transactions directly to a credit card processor from your website.

Merchant Account/Payment Gateway:

You typically need to have a few things to make this happen- a merchant account to process credit cards, an ACH account or instant fund transfer account to process checks, a payment gateway account (such as Authorize.net) that links the aforementioned accounts to your website, as well as taking security measures on your web server.
Each of these items have their own fees that can be annual, one time setup fees, monthly, or per transaction (some may incur fees that fall into more than one of those categories). Most of them also have minimum fees that you would need to pay even if you didn’t process any transactions. It is not uncommon for the minimum fees to add up to about $100/month, to have setup fees for these accounts that are a few hundred dollars, and to incur lease payments on some of these items. The per transaction fees are normally far less, so if you process a few hundred transactions per month these accounts can be less expensive.
Check processing directly through a bank can often be done faster than through PayPal (since PayPal adds an additional step to the process)- credit cards take about the same amount of time regardless of which system you use.
The technical implementation is much more complicated for these setups, and generally requires greater ongoing troubleshooting and support. At high transaction volumes this becomes worth it due to savings on fees.

If you're just looking to allow customers to pay invoices online (not selling products), in most cases its best to start with PayPal or Google Checkout, since it is an easy way to get stated and judge the interest from your customers in making payments online. If it is a big success and hundreds of invoices are paid online each month, then it justifies migrating to a setup with your own merchant account.

Managing Your Reputation Online

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:51:00 +0000

In a series of studies from the late 1970s through the late 1990s conducted by the research firm TARP, it was found that only 50% of consumers will complain about a problem to a company. And on average, twice as many people are told about a bad experience than they are about a good experience. TARP's last basic finding is that customers who complain and are satisfied are up to 8% more loyal than if they had no problem at all.

These studies provide us some valuable lessons- unhappy customers are likely to never even let you know that they are unhappy, but they WILL tell their colleagues and friends. Even if you have an excellent customer service department that resolves problems quickly, which actually helps your relationship with customers more than if they had never had a problem, you will often never have the chance to address these issues.

These problems are compounded by the fact that the prevalence of social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, MySpace, Blogs, etc.) make it very easy for someone to spread the word about your company. Since they are twice as likely to do so when upset as they are when happy, it is simple for a customer to express their disdain for a company or product to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of contacts. If you never hear about a problem, how can you possibly hope to resolve it and get a chance to turn that unhappy customer into an evangelist that spreads the word about your great customer service?

Luckily, there are ways to combat this problem. Here are three essential tasks that are essential for managing your online reputation. These will give your company the best chance possible to keep your customer base satisfied by helping you find customers that are expressing problems with your organization of which you are unaware.

1) Set a Google Alert for your company name- Go to: http://www.google.com/alerts - complete the form, entering your company name or any product names you wish to monitor. You can set up multiple alerts for different terms you wish to monitor. When you have done this, once a day you will receive an e-mail letting you know about any new information about your company and products that have been added to their database. This will allow you to quickly discover both negative and positive comments.

2) Search Twitter at least weekly for these same terms. This can be done in an automated fashion with a Twitter client such as Tweetdeck, or manually through searches on the Twitter website. Again, the purpose of this is to find both negative and positive feedback about your organization.

3) If you sell products, either through your own website or through online retailers and partner sites, search product and company reviews for new comments about your company and products. Whether they are sold through amazon.com, newegg.com, or even on your own site, it is imperative that you read the latest reviews.

Now that you have seen the latest feedback your customer base has about your company, respond appropriately. If persons are making positive comments, thank them publicly by posting replies to their tweets, blog posts, and reviews. You may also wish to respond with coupons or other special offers as a way to solidify their positive feelings about your company.

If someone has left negative feedback, publicly make it known that you would like to discuss their issue with them, and provide a means for them to do so. Then make sure that you treat their concerns with a high priority in your customer service department. You likely only have one chance to get it right with an already upset customer. Lastly, once you successfully resolve the issue with an upset customer, ask them to publish their satisfaction in the same manner as they did their complaint.

Following these tips will help you find unresolved customer complaints and deal with them appropriately.

Stop burning your money like dead leaves! (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (SBA Network) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:32:00 +0000

Last week we began a discussion of techniques used in effective Internet Marketing campaigns. To read that article, please click here: http://articles.markdeo.com/2010/08/stop-burning-your-money-like-dead.html

To recap, the 5 most important activities you can undertake are:

Keyword Selection/website copy
Inbound links
Landing Pages
Blogging
E-mail marketing

We wrote previously about keyword selection/website copy and inbound links, and now we’re moving on to landing pages and blogging.

Landing Pages
Landing pages are a technique used to help funnel inbound traffic to the website to pages that are targeted towards specific keywords. The pages are designed to be the first thing a visitor sees when they come to the website, and include not just the keyword text at a high density, but also a call to action and a means of responding immediately through a feedback form. This is important so that when visitors come to the site, it is easy for them to express interest and become a qualified lead.

Blogging
A blog is often the best way to add new content to a website. It provides an easy to use interface, a simple method for uploading photos, and if properly integrated into the website, helps keep search engines coming back to the site to index content on a frequent basis. Sites with blogs outperform sites that lack blogs in most measures of search performance, and help visitors know that the content they see on your site is up to date. Thus, it is important for your site to include a blog that you use to keep the site up to date.

To read in more depth about these techniques, simply send us an e-mail to request our FREE whitepaper on Internet Marketing Techniques, or e-mail us with your questions at info@sbanetwork.org.

Stop burning your money like dead leaves!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:13:00 +0000

While the country is currently faced with heat waves from coast to coast, in a few short weeks leaves will be changing colors, evenings will bring a pleasant cool, crisp breeze, and fall will be in full effect. In some parts of the country, people will be raking leaves into piles that they burn. Those leaves are a lot like the dollars business owners have spent on their websites- in a seemingly endless cycle, small businesses spend money on web design, copy, hosting, and with no return, they are burning their money just like those leaves.

Some persons, however, will take those falling leaves and turn them into mulch. They can use them to provide nutrients to the soil, and be able to have a great garden come spring. That's exactly what a small business can do with the dollars they spend on the Internet- rather than just throw away their money on costs that bring no return, they can use that Internet budget to actually bring in new business in the future.

How do you go from burning your dollars to investing them in future sales? An effective Internet Marketing Plan is essential to getting the most from your efforts online.

To set up an effective Internet marketing plan, you need to take into account the following major areas:

Keyword Selection/website copy
Inbound links
Landing Pages
Blogging
E-mail marketing

Keyword selection/website copy
It is critical that you understand the terms used by persons searching for your solution to their problem. To do this, you need to do some research through tools made available by search engines such as Google. This will help you identify the best keywords to target with your online efforts. What makes a good keyword? A large number of searches with low competition is ideal. A search professional can help you with this process, and should be able to identify the best chances you have at achieving success online.

Once you have identified these keywords, you need to use them on your website. Rewrite the copy on your pages to include your targeted keywords. This will make it so that your website is more relevant for those terms.

Inbound Links
One of the major factors Google and other search engines use to determine the importance of a website is the number of other websites that have links pointing to it. A search professional can help you find other sites that will link to your website. This may involve linking back to those websites, as well as finding directories for companies in your industry that will link to you.
Next week we'll send information on landing pages and blogging, and the following week will be a message on effective e-mail marketing. For more details on any of these topics, reply to this message to say that you want to stop burning your money like dead leaves and we'll send you our whitepapers on Internet Marketing Plans and E-mail Marketing. Have a great weekend!

Mark Deo
mark@markdeo.com

Rule 15 – Conserve, Preserve and Reserve

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:41:00 +0000

This week I'm giving you a sneak preview at the online exclusive bonus chapter to my book, The Rules of Attraction. To read the full chapter, head on over to www.markdeo.com/rulesofattraction

This rule is becoming more and more important to marketers today. It is the social responsibility rule. While the 70s and the 80s were the "me" decades, the new millennium is the "us" decade. More than ever we are feeling the pressure to tighten our belts and adopt a more conservative approach, build larger reserves for our families and preserve what we already have. The spend, spend, spend and boom/bust mentality is passing away in favor of a more "grounded" mindset. This extends itself to the marketing arena as well.

Conservation-based Marketing
Everywhere we look, we see the "green story" being touted. This doesn't just apply to energy companies, manufacturers and Fortune 500 companies looking to join the "green" bandwagon. Organizations in every industry and field of endeavor are opting for adding this element to their communication strategies. According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus, green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Yet defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this term. Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing.

Preservation-based Initiatives
One way that we can leverage the current focus on the "green mentality" is to promote sustainability. It's getting difficult to find an industry or profession that doesn't have some type of sustainability initiatives. This can encompass alternative energy initiatives, ride sharing, new recycling alternatives, lower consumption levels and the like. I know a display manufacturer that completely retooled their manufacturing process to eliminate ALL harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) thereby reducing their consumption footprint by 70%. While this did require a significant upfront investment in new equipment, it has resulted in a 136% return on investment to date. Their return came in the form of lower material prices, energy rebates and a special low rate financing as a result of the reduced environmental impact.

There are many more ways that we can leverage this 15th Rule. In short let me say that the more we sincerely focus on preserving, conserving and reserving, the more powerful our marketing will be to those who are socially responsible. What can you do to use this rule in your business?

Attraction-based Marketing for Professionals

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:46:00 +0000

I coach and consult with many professionals that are doctors, dentists, lawyers, bankers and CPAs. Often times when professionals focus on sales or marketing, they can appear desperate. In a sense, "marketing their practice" can reduce their credibility rather than increase it. For this reason, using "attraction-based marketing" can be particularly effective.

There are a number of very credible ways in which professionals can create attraction. Over the next few weeks, I will be focusing on four PROVEN methods by which professionals can create positive client attraction. The first is:

Leveraging Knowledge through Exclusivity

Since professionals have a highly specialized vertical skill, they possess deep knowledge in a very specific area of expertise. If this knowledge is properly used in a carefully orchestrated campaign, it can produce fabulous results in attracting potential clients and referrers. Unfortunately, few professionals perform the planning necessary to properly educate and inspire their prospect base. It often comes off as "self promotion" which has the opposite of the intended impact. Instead, I recommend first crafting the educational message in a way that is interesting and relevant to the target audience. It should be, however, most critically in a way that demonstrates the "exclusivity" offered by the professional. That is, "what do you offer which no one else does?" How do you do it? Why is your exclusive method more valuable that the traditional approach?

The next step is to create a series of messages that clearly articulates the significance of the exclusivity in a way that does NOT promote the professionals services. Shameless self-promotion by professionals is the "kiss of death!" This can accomplished through e-blasts, seminars, webinars, teleconferences and most importantly in a casual way through personal conversations and networking. Finally, the all-important follow-up step. Without consistent, valuable follow-up we are unable to maintain the top-of-the-mind awareness so that when a client need arises, we are the first call they make. More critically, our series of carefully orchestrated messages succeeds in motivating someone to take action based on a latent need. This is the most influential from of selling for professionals.

For more examples of how professionals can use "attraction-based marketing" to build their practice, particularly during economic downturns go to www.markdeo.com and check out my new book, The Rules of Attraction.

Small Businesses Forgotten in Stimulus Distribution

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:47:00 +0000

This article was co-written with Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. Lloyd will be on my weekly radio show this Monday at 4 PM. Please visit smallbusinesshour.com to listen.

It is time for America's small businesses to unite and take ACTION!

In a recent national address, President Barack Obama boldly proclaimed that his Administration's economic stimulus package was working. Meanwhile, small businesses in middle class America struggle to simply keep their doors open. Despite thousands of business closures during the last several months, the mainstream media has spent little time discussing the importance of small businesses to America's economic vitality. Our nation's political leaders routinely recognize small business as the backbone of our nation's economy, but to date small businesses have largely been left out of efforts to stimulate America's economy.

America's 27 million small businesses generate more than $6 trillion in annual revenue and collectively account for more than half of our nation's Gross Domestic Product. U.S. Census Bureau data indicates that companies with less than 20 employees account for 90 percent of all U.S. firms and are responsible for more than 97 percent of net new jobs.

When small businesses thrive, our economy grows. Yet today, millions of these businesses are being threatened by the very plan that was supposedly intended to help them. The president's stimulus package, rather than providing aid to small businesses is diverting resources to save mismanaged corporate giants.

Congress earmarked a mere 1.9 percent of the initial $789 billion stimulus package to assist small businesses. Worse yet, to date, less than one half of one percent has been distributed to small businesses. The irony of this is that in the long run small businesses will bear the burden of paying nearly the entire tab for this extravagant spending package and receive almost NOTHING in return.

The new administration is taking capital and revenue from the mouths of America's small business owners and feeding it to the big national banks, greedy Fortune 500 CEOs and Wall Street executives. This theory enraptures Wall Street, yet alienates Main Street. Even the Small Business Administration (SBA) is led by venture capital vipers who are licking their chops at a chance to infiltrate and dominate federal programs designed for small businesses.

The SBA was planning to guarantee $20 billion in loans during fiscal year (FY) 2009, yet it is currently on-track to reach half of that mark. Loan programs like the ARC [America's Recovery Capital] have been purposely structured so that few small businesses can qualify and banks literally have little motivation to lend. Even more disconcerting, every year, billions of dollars in federal contracts intended for small businesses are diverted to Fortune 500 corporations and other clearly large firms. Since 2003, more than 15 federal investigations found fraud, abuse, loopholes and a lack of oversight have led to widespread abuses in federal small business programs. The American Small Business League (ASBL) has estimated that every year up to $100 billion in federal small business contracts are diverted to corporate giants.

On top of this, small businesses are facing a hike in taxes for those earning more than $250,000, limits on itemized deductions, higher dividend taxes and shouldering more responsibility for worker health care.

While the Fortune 500 corporations have an army of lobbyists in Washington, small businesses are on their own. For this reason, it is more important than ever that small businesses unite. Regardless of political affiliation or industry association something needs to be done to stop this insane, wasteful spending spree. The ASBL and the Small Business Hour Radio Show are urging small business owners to make their voice heard. They collectively will be working together to shine a brighter light on issues facing America's 27 million small businesses, and to help the small business community organize a more powerful unified voice. To participate in this united movement towards change, please listen to the Small Business Hour with Mark Deo at smallbusinesshour.com and become a supporter of the ASBL by visiting http://www.asbl.com/joinasbl.html.

by Lloyd Chapman and Mark Deo

Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League
A vocal crusader for the rights of small business, Mr. Chapman is a familiar figure at the Small Business Administration and in the United States Congress, where he has continued to work tirelessly during the last two presidential administrations to prevent federal small business contracts from being diverted to large corporations. He is regularly quoted by the media on small business contracting issues. He can be contacted at www.asbl.com

Mark Deo, Host of the Small Business Hour
Mark Deo is a small business advocate, author, journalist and business owner. For 12 years he has been the host of CBS radio's, "The Small Business Hour." He has been voted "Journalist of the Year" by the Small Business Administration; his weekly radio show can be heard at www.smallbusinesshour.com.

Thank you for your feedback, and have a great week!

-Mark Deo

No interest, no payment for one year, $35,000 loans available from the SBA

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:43:00 +0000

The Small Business Administration released "lender guidelines" yesterday for the America's Recovery Capital (ARC) Loan Program. While the program was announced back in May, details on the $35,000 interest-free, deferred-payment loans are only now available.

I was on the phone with Eric Zarnikow, Associate Administrator for Capital Access, the SBA department overseeing the ARC loan program, and he told me that, "Borrowers can begin applying for these loans beginning June 15, per the Administrator's May 18 comments. We estimate that the SBA, through our lenders, will be able to provide about 10,000 ARC loans to small businesses across the country."

You can read my article with more details on these loans on Entrepeneur.com.

What are ARC Loans?
ARC loans will be made for up to $35,000 and available to established, viable, for-profit small businesses suffering "immediate financial hardship" in order to provide some temporary financial relief so they can keep their doors open and put their cash flow back on track. It is intended for businesses that need short-term help to make their principal and interest payments on existing qualifying debt (including conventional loans, credit card obligations, notes owed to suppliers and utilities).

So what exactly is a "Viable business?"
Zarnikow says the SBA defines this as "a for-profit business with evidence of profitability or positive cash flow in at least one of the past two years."

How does the SBA define "immediate financial hardship"

The SBA is requiring businesses to show evidence of a "change in the financial condition" such as declining sales, frozen credit lines, difficulty meeting payroll, paying rent or difficulty making loan payments. The lender must analyze and confirm that a hardship exists.

How do ARC loans work?
The loans are 100 percent guaranteed by the SBA and made by existing SBA 7(a) lenders. They have no SBA or lender fees associated with them (unless the lender must secure collateral as part of the loan). The disbursement period (up to six months) is followed by a 12- month deferral period with no repayment of principal. After the deferral period, the borrower pays back only the ARC Loan principal over a five year period. ARC loans are available through SBA-approved lenders as long as funding is available or through September 30, 2010.

Mark Deo will help to guide you through the loan process
I have spent a great deal of time discussing these programs with officials at the SBA, as well as proving insight to some of the most influential business publications in America, including Entrepreneur Magazine. As a reader of my business update, I am more than happy to share this information with you- all I ask is that you purchase a copy of my new book, The Rules of Attraction. If you have a copy of my book, and you want to get my insight on how your business may be able to obtain an ARC loan, please send an e-mail to mark@markdeo.com and include your name and phone number. I will personally call you to help you assess your prospects of obtaining one of these loans.

Click here to purchase my book from Amazon.com. Remember that 100% of the profits from my book go to the charity Habitat for Humanity.

Thank you, and have a great week!

-Mark Deo

Building Loyalty by Thinking Small

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:42:00 +0000

Those of us that have lived in a small town know that loyalty is very
natural. People know each other and treat one another as neighbors. Companies
need to think small if they want to build greater loyalty. This works both
externally when trying to attract the right kind of customers as well as
internally when attempting to create greater teamwork and collaboration.

To apply this to improved marketing, I advise that business leaders isolate
several highly targeted audiences that all rally around the same type of
specific requirements. Then focus the ENTIRE message on their needs. This is one
way to become more important to fewer people. This can also be applied to
management by building a structure where people can work well in small teams.
When a small team accepts ownership of a daunting challenge for change, a
wonderful dynamic emerges. Everyone stops worrying about who will get credit or
the political factors. They step up and collectively perform.

Whether you are trying to create attraction externally in the marketplace or
internally in your organization I want to encourage people to get my new book
which is available at Amazon.com now.

You can get it here.

Remember that 100% of the proceeds go to the charity Habitat for Humanity.

Thoughts on the Stimulus Package

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:40:00 +0000

I am being asked to comment in a number of media outlets about the impact of
the President's stimulus program on small businesses. Today I did an interview
for MSN Business. Later this week I will be talking to La Opinion. Here are some
of the typical questions I have been receiving and the answers I am giving. I
have done this in outline form so that you can read this very quickly. I'd love
to get some feedback from our readers.

How important is small business to the U.S. economy?

Small businesses drive this economy

Employ about half of the nation's 144 million private sector workers

Account for 60 to 80 percent of new private sector jobs

Generate more than $6 trillion in annual revenue

Account for more than half of the country's GDP

What do small businesses possess that larger enterprises lack?

Personal passion: Personally invested rather than Wall Street dollars.

Customer-centric: Deep understanding of customer needs and opportunities.

Agility: Adapt quickly to changing market conditions and new business practices.

Experimentation: NOT afraid to improvise and accept failure as a path to success.

Limited resources: Adept at accomplishing more with less with little waste.

Collaboration: Rely on social networks, affiliates, alliances and information sharing.

What are the economic challenges for small businesses today?

Crushing debt due to asset devaluation

Lost 4 million jobs in the last year and more than half are small business jobs

A significant drop in sales and productivity in every industry except Washington

Lack of access to capital or affordable funding

TARP participating banks will likely not participate limiting the ability to fund loans

Wickedly fierce competition and price erosion

How might small business's benefit from the President's stimulus plan?

Obama earmarked $15 billion of the $789 billion stimulus package for small business

$730 mil to reduce small business lending fees

Increase SBA loans to 90%

Attempting to open-up secondary market credit

What are some of the problems with the plan?

Incorporates a HIKE in taxes for all households and businesses earning more than $250,000

Higher dividend taxes

Limits on itemized deductions

Small businesses will likely have to shoulder a more responsibility for worker health care.

SBA was planning to guarantee $20 billion in loans yet currently on-track for less than $10 billion!

The US government is not in-touch with the needs of small businesses – they are spending billions to save 250,000 auto-maker jobs while already 4 million small business jobs have been lost!

Summary

While I cannot place the complete blame for this conundrum at the feet of this
new administration I believe the outgrowth of this stimulus plan is like taking
capital and revenue from the mouth of America's small business owners and
feeding it to the big National Banks, Wall Street financers and government
bureaucrats. This theory enraptures Wall Street and alienates Main Street. Don't
expect help from the government. Small business leaders are on-their-own. That's
good for those willing to roll-up their sleeves. This is how our country became
great – on that backs of small business leaders!

We all have to answer the question: Do we have a fighting chance or just a
chance to fight? I believe the former.

Recommendations for small businesses:

Business attraction is more critical than ever:

Become a bigger fish in a smaller pond by shrinking your audience.

Create standards and systems to leverage efficiency and accommodate growth.

Be willing to destroy and rebuild your business or re-invent yourself especially NOW!

Innovate or die! It's time to launch your most creative products, services and marketing.

Take advantage of all the great talent on the street.

This is the time to enter into collaborative alliances, affiliate relationships and joint ventures to consolidate costs and spread risk.

Localize or globalize! There is no center ground today.

Invest wisely. This is the time to buy – learn how to identify devalued assets.

Sources:

U.S. Department of Commerce, Small Business Administration, Intuit Future of
Small Business Report, Institute for the Future, Huffington Post, MarkDeo.com

-Mark Deo

Take Your Foot Off the Brake!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Have you ever driven your car on an icy road?
What happens when you jam-on the brakes?
That's right, you slide off the road and maybe end-up in a ditch or worse.

That is exactly what is happening to many people today. They are spending entirely too much time watching, reading, listening and talking about how BAD things are in this economy. They are focusing on blaming Bush or Obama or the Fortune 100 CEOS or whoever. As a result, they can't help but react with fear by jamming-on the brakes.

My winters in Chicago taught me that when I was driving on icy roads and I would hit the brake it would not "prevent" an accident but rather "cause" one to occur. When we blithely slash expenses, lay-off our best and often highest paid people, discontinue investment in technology, marketing, training or improvement programs we are actually RE-ENFORCING our worse fears and jamming on the brakes. I can assure you that this will cause us to end-up in the ditch. Getting out of the ditch will not be easy and in many cases will end-up costing us more than we save.

Instead, I want to encourage entrepreneurs to certainly drive carefully and more diligently. To continue the analogy, we may need to slip into low gear but maintain that steady forward motion. This challenging economic environment is presenting new opportunities (devalued technologies and businesses), the opening of new markets (Green and sustainable areas) and allowing us to access resources which have not been as readily available when times were good (there's more great talent on the street). This is a fabulous time for small businesses to grow and prosper. My most successful clients are now investing more into growth and expansion opportunities than ever before! We are taking our own advice and investing in the release of my new book, The Rules of Attraction, the release of our new Small Business Radio weekly show and in hiring several new consultants!

Just like navigating a treacherous stretch of icy road, it requires careful planning, quick reaction time, precise execution and a healthy risk tolerance. I plan on safely arriving at my destination on time and ensuring our clients do as well. Our positive mindset, practical skills, and sharp wits will permit us to do so. Won't you join me?

Your action plan for this week:
Turn-off the news!
Cancel the daily paper!
Stop talking about how bad things are!
Don't buy-in to the FEAR mentality!

I predict just 18 months from today, you will look back and be happy that you did.

Have a great week!

-Mark Deo

To Twitter, or not to Twitter: That is the Question!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:38:00 +0000

From time to time I like to share tips and articles from other business experts, and this week I'm sending an article written by my friend Corey Perlman. Corey is an Internet Marketing expert, and author of the book eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of his book, and if you do so now he's offering over $2500 in bonuses for FREE. Find out more at: http://www.ebootcampbook.com

-Mark Deo

If you haven't heard the buzz going around about the micro-blogging site Twitter.com, you soon will. It's by far the hottest social networking application in the ever-evolving world of Internet marketing. But, should you join the cyber-party?

Before I answer that question, let's define what Twitter is. Twitter is a Web site where you can follow what people are saying and they can follow what you are saying. The unique thing about Twitter is that they only allow you to write your "tweet" (or written message) in 140 characters or less. Yep, in the 'more is less' world of Internet communication, they have the audacity to make us be short and to the point with everything we write. The nerve!

When you follow someone, each of their tweets shows up on your personal Web page. And when you tweet, each of your messages shows up on their Twitter page. One of the distinct differences between Twitter and other social communities such as Facebook or Linkedin is the more liberal screening process people seem to have on Twitter when deciding who to connect with. It's not uncommon to follow complete strangers based on knowing very little about them. You can blink and have hundreds of people following you or vice versa. For an even clearer definition of Twitter, go to www.twitter.com and watch the video in the top right-hand corner of the page.

So, on to the question of if you should add Twitter as part of your Internet marketing repertoire. My answer is Yes and No. :) Let me explain. My answer is no if you're simply looking for a tool to sell more of your products or services. In my opinion, it's just not being used that way and people frown upon heavy promoting and selling. However, if you are looking to create more online relationships, expand your brand, or stay on the bleeding edge of information in your industry, then I wholeheartedly recommend that you jump on Twitter right away.

A colleague of mine, Perry Belcher, had a great analogy of how to view Twitter. It's like hosting a huge party. You wouldn't invite someone to your party and immediately try and sell them the second you opened the door. Instead, you'd greet them, invite them in, have a conversation and potentially engage in business if the opportunity presents itself. This is exactly how Twitter works as well.

Twitter can be a great opportunity for you to engage people with similar interests in an incredibly fast and effective way. So here are the steps to create your Twitter account:

Go to Twitter.com and register for an account. It's free!
Take some time and fill out your profile. The more thought out your profile is, the more likely people will follow you.
Write your first tweet. Let everyone know you are new to the site and find a fun way to introduce yourself.
Look for some of your friends on Twitter. You have a friend in me! Just go to www.twitter.com/coreyperlman and www.twitter.com/ebootcamp and click "follow" and you will then be following me. You'll be able to see all the people that I follow and can follow them as well if you choose.

For the next few weeks, tweet at least once a day. It takes all of about 2-3 minutes, so don't worry about finding the time. You can also write your tweets via your cell phone. See Twitter.com for instructions on how to do that.

A couple of final notes about Twitter:

Try not to just tweet about what you are doing. Although that is the theme of Twitter.com, most people like to offer some value in some of their tweets. For example, did you see a really good article (maybe like the one you're reading :) and want to share it with your followers? Simply highlight the article link and add it as a tweet.
You don't have to be too picky on who you follow. It's easy to un-follow someone if they are tweeting too much or for any other reason.
On occasion, it is ok to promote your products or services. Just remember the party analogy - don't overdue it and annoy people. Communicate on a personal level with people and build trust. There will be plenty of opportunity down the road to conduct business if the opportunity presents itself naturally.
Write a tweet at least twice a week. That should take all of about 5 minutes total!

Ok my friends, enough with the analysis paralysis, get out there and start TWEETING!

See you in Twitterville!

Corey

This article was provided by SBA Network partner Corey Perlman, find out more at: http://www.ebootcampbook.com

The Power of Combined Training and Coaching

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:35:00 +0000

Before I go on with our business update this week let me just take a moment to welcome a new member to out consulting staff. His name is Sean Griffith and he is a new Senior Business Consultant with the SBA Network. Sean is also an attorney and Financial Consultant. Don't hold that against him. With over 10 years of experience he has been helping clients to achieve their goals. Send him an e-mail and introduce yourself.

Companies spend over $375 billion every year on training and even more on coaching. Yet according to the American Society for Training and Development about "42 percent of the knowledge that professionals use to get their jobs done actually comes from their co-workers. This is called prairie-dogging--workers pop out of their cubicles to solicit information from the local expert. When a worker is consulting another worker, both workers lose productivity."

We won't even address the fact that many of these "company experts" are actually spreading the incorrect methods or techniques and that just adds to the dysfunctions that permeate many organizations today.

What if you could provide the skills that workers need to increase their performance without adversely impacting productivity?

There is. It can be accomplished by combining training with coaching.

It is easy to confuse the purpose of training and coaching. I suppose misconceptions arise due to the need for change in performance and the fact that each of these disciplines can discretely increase performance. To demonstrate the difference in a more concrete way, let's take a look at the intent of training vs. coaching in most applications:

Training

Satisfies the knowledge gap

Typically performed in a group setting

Learning can occur from other participants

A forum for harnessing enthusiasm and team motivation

Content is based on a specified single topic

Delivers instruction of methods and techniques

Established period of time

Classroom-based

Pre-established pacing

Coaching

Satisfies the skills gap

One-to-one interactivity

Typically Learning cannot occur from other participants

A forum for harnessing enthusiasm and team motivation

Content can be based on varying topics

Assists participant to put methods and techniques into action

Varying period of time

On-the-job

Flexible pacing

There are probably many other advantages of training or coaching when viewed as separate disciplines, yet consider the combination of providing training with coaching. When these forces are combined we are able to create an environment where habits can be changed much more rapidly.

We deliver the methods and techniques in a training environment and then ensure that they are put into practice with on-going coaching. The coaching allows team members to adapt their training experience to their specific challenges on the job. This supports effective skill-building, increases confidence and solidifies habitual change.

I am proud to say that our organization has been associated with Dale Carnegie Training for over 15 years and we have seen first-hand what combined training and coaching can do to increase the performance within an organization. You can find out more about our coaching programs at http://www.sbanetwork.org

Have a great week!

-Mark Deo

No Time to Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:33:00 +0000

It is not often that I find myself without words. I usually have plenty to say about any topic imaginable. But recently when speaking with a CEO who had asked my advice about how to deal with a particular challenge in his business, I was rendered speechless. This CEO had recently lost a key supplier to the competition thereby disrupting his supply chain and causing production and delivery problems.

As we discussed his challenges, the CEO seemed forthright and was open to hearing ideas of how to handle this. So I told him about several other clients that had experienced the same problem and how they created a foolproof method for avoiding such circumstances in the future. I suggested he engage in some planning to create a network of suppliers with contingencies for those that fail to maintain loyalty. I suggested that in the future, he should try to avoid depending too much on any one supplier unless there was an exclusive arrangement in place. I told him that the key was doing some careful planning to identify competitive suppliers and play one against another.

His response both stunned and surprised me. He said. "Wow, that sounds like it would take a LOT of time. I don't have time for planning!" I asked him if he now had time to find a new supplier. He answered a sheepish, NO and went on to tell me about how he was working 60+ hours per week just trying to manage all of the details of his business.

I think this is a fairly common problem with business leaders today. We spend so much time working IN our business that we fail to work ON the business. Peter Drucker said that on the average one hour spent planning is worth 5 hours of execution. Are you spending enough time planning? Do you need to take a step back and look at the big picture and identify some contingencies?

This might be the very time to do just that. For more information on planning and planning resources, check out our library of articles.

Mark Deo and Cory Halbardier, as well as other SBA Network consultants are available for keynote presentations and other type of speaking engagements. Contact Cory Halbardier at 310-320-8190 to ask about availability.

-Mark Deo
mark@markdeo.com

Global Business

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:32:00 +0000

I want to make everyone aware of an upcoming radio show that we are doing this Friday at 4pm – PST with one of the most interesting business authors I have spoken with in a while.

His name is James Hemerling and his book is called GLOBALITY: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything. Hemerling states that the old global business model (centralized, top-down, process-driven, with influence running from West to East) will recede, perhaps vanish. It is inadequate for a world in which every global company is forced to compete: in every market, with everyone, from everywhere, all the time, for resources and market share.

Unlike developed-market leaders, emerging-market challengers have evolved new management and governance structures that are ideally suited to this new competitive landscape. In addition, it has enabled them to undercut, outthink, outwork, out-innovate, and generally outfox some of the biggest, most powerful names in global industry. What are these upstart challengers doing? How are they winning?

Imagine companies that:

Innovate at the rate of one new product development every 12 hours.

Give up the notion of "headquarters" in a drive toward global expansion.

Do away with titles and committees in an effort to improve staff development.

Expand into 50 countries by satisfying global demand that no one else could see - at the lowest, cheapest end of the market.

Hire thousands of people to staff assembly lines, instead of automating, to be more efficient, flexible, and profitable.

Achieve such high efficiency that they can give away 60% of their services and still make a profit.

Retrain workers by the tens of thousands to build a world-class capability, in less than a decade.

Again, listen to my interview with James Hemerling this Friday at 4pm – PDT. Just go to www.markdeo.com and turn-up the sound. It's that easy!

-Mark Deo
mark@markdeo.com

Fuel for the Economy

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:27:00 +0000

I remember my 1966 Mustang. I sold it for $600 in 1976 before going to grad school and I'm still kicking myself over that! Everyone loved Ford in those days. But it's not easy to believe in Ford these days. The auto giant has lost over $15 billion, closed factories, shed tens of thousands of jobs, sold-off Jaguar, Land Rover and given-up the No. 2 position in sales to Toyota!

Their new Chief Marketing Officer, James Farley, formerly with Toyota, was rehearsing for his speech to dealers, stockholders and company leaders. As the lights dimmed, Mr. Farley didn't calmly announce his future plans or quote statistics. Instead, he spoke from the heart, revealing a depth of passion for Ford that turned the room dead silent. He became swept up in the emotional power of the moment. "I believe, in many ways, the future of Ford is the future of our country," he said. "The work here is simply more important than the work I was doing at Toyota." When he finished, the dealers rose for a standing ovation that left Mr. Farley momentarily stunned. After the applause died down, he savored the reaction. They were waiting for someone to believe in.

Computers, automation and mobile connectedness has had a strange impact on people today. It has caused a desensitization of emotional response. We want to quantify and analyze everything. It is draining the passion and heart from all that we do. I would like to encourage business leaders today to let their true emotions show. Cry real tears, quake with true laughter and shake with anger if you must. Don't downplay the power of REAL EMOTION. Your team is depending on your genuine emotional display to motivate them. It is the fuel for their continued belief and a precursor to talking action!

Have a great week!

-Mark Deo

Turning the Economy Around

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:25:00 +0000

This is an interesting time. The recent layoff of 80,000 American workers has resulted in all of the financial gurus spouting their drivel about the global economic crisis we are facing. I have even heard some say we are entering another depression. Just a few days ago, I appeared on FOX TV and discussed this with business expert Neil Cavuto. He asked me how I thought this was affecting small business owners and what they could do about it. My comments were that maybe we should put some of these gurus on the firing line of small businesses and see how they do. Their demise would be quick and final. Because as I told Mr. Cavuto, the most important asset that entrepreneurs have today is their attitude.

Without a positive attitude, we are doomed regardless of how well or how poorly the economy is doing. Many of us perhaps have heard the Serenity Prayer - "We must accept the things we cannot change, have the courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference." Surely, we cannot individually change the economy but collectively it is certainly possible. We can do this by focusing on the critical business issues at hand like, delivering a higher level of customer satisfaction, creative product development and line extensions, smart financial management, getting longer terms on payables, building customer loyalty programs and penetrating new markets. We do have the ability to turn this economy around but we must first look in the mirror and begin the change within. Do you have the courage to take that challenge? I sure hope so. All of our jobs might depend on it.

Click the Fox Business logo below to view my latest appearance:

Have a great week!

-Mark Deo

How beliefs affect your Sales Team

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Walker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:11:00 +0000

It's 10 am on Monday morning at Hal Company. Everyone knows it's time for the sales meeting run by Jay, the sales manager. Jay begins by describing the company's successes over the last week. He mentions that Martin gained commitment from a new client. Everyone claps for Martin but he's not there. As Jay continues to talk about the company's goals, he notices Sam disengaged, reading through what appears to be a contract. Adam and Valishia are always upfront. They thrive on these meetings. Jay knows that they both rely too heavily on excitement to keep their sales up.

Jay has a problem, but it is hard to see.

Now, let's investigate the real issues.

Martin is at his desk working on a proposal. He doesn't see the need to attend the meeting. From his experience at a large company, he found meetings to be a complete waste of time. In addition, he and his old compatriots would frequently joke about tactics they each used to escape meetings. This cemented the belief that "Meetings are useless, so I won't attend."

Jay has experienced difficulty changing this behavior. He has pulled Martin aside on several occasions and requested that he attend the meeting. When he doesn't, Jay permits it to slide because Martin is bringing in more sales than anyone else.

Jay notices that Sam is consistently disengaged in various settings. In other meetings and trainings, Sam usually has something to distract him. While sitting with clients, Sam spends more time talking than listening. This prevents him from attaining a high level of sales. He believes that what he has to say is more important what others have to say. This gets in his way.

Adam and Valishia learned once-upon-a-time that sales is an excitement game. They believe that if they stay excited, they will close more sales. Because of this, they attend every meeting, event, internal and external training, and industry meeting. The problem is they spend more time meeting people and very little time selling.

From the article, "How Beliefs Affect Your Resiliency" we know that beliefs can't be changed directly and aggressively. They must be changed through coaching. We recommend professional coaching because changing beliefs is difficult, but permanent.

In lieu of using a professional coach, we would recommend that Jay sit down with each of them, explain how beliefs work (from the article mentioned above,) and asked questions that get to the heart of their belief. Asking questions such as, "You didn't attend the meeting, this was the behavior. What was the expectation behind that?" He may say that he expected no value to come from the meeting. Then ask him, "What belief creates this expectation?" He may say something like, "I believe that all meetings are a waste of time." Then ask him what would need to happen at a meeting to make it valuable for him to attend.

Once you know, ask him that if you incorporated this new concept into the meeting, if he would attend. Then ask why he would attend. His answer builds emotional value into the meeting.

Follow a similar format with the other individuals.

This article was written by SBA Network Consultant Cory Halbardier.

SALESPERSON: If you are a salesperson, receive a FREE copy of our audio program Being More Productive by sending an email to me at cory@sbanetwork.org with the name and email address of your sales manager. We will send him this article along with a special audio program titled Motivating Your Staff.

SALES ADVANTAGE: We are starting the next session of the Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage class. If you are a salesperson who wants to learn the structure of effective sales, or just to improve your skills, the new class starts March 17^th. Sign up today by contacting Aaron Kent at aaron_kent@dalecarnegie.com or 562-426-8327 x210.

Have a great week!

-Cory Halbardier (cory@sbanetwork.org)