Yes, you need a professional portrait

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In the past few weeks, I’ve been asked by several people about getting professional portraits done.

A good picture can be used on your social media communication and can be submitted when you are speaking on a program or win an award. It should also be available for the media.

I’d recommend Simply Portraits in Loomis, CA. In addition to professional portraits, they do wonderful family portraits in beautiful foothills settings as well as in more formal settings.

Arrange to get your photo done now so you aren’t in a rush when suddenly you need a picture when you are featured at a conference or the newspaper asks for a head shot.

Sales calls that drill down rather than wear down

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Last week, I met with a home improvement sales person. His presentation wore me down. He talked so much that it was hard to ask questions. He also didn’t leave a business card with me. So instead of calling him back, I went to the store to see more samples on my own. Unfortunately the store doesn’t carry the same samples as their sales people. This disconnect lost the sale.

So as a reminder, a more effective sales technique is to drill down with questions rather than wearing down a prospect with benefits that may not be important to him or her.

An effective presentation answers those questions and then finds out what else they’d want to know to be comfortable deciding to buy. Drill down to gain a deeper understanding of what is important to the buyer before offering benefits.

Listen readily to any concerns or objections. These are your guide to the person’s process for making decisions.

Also, the first few calls are most likely to be educational for both you and the prospect. And through sharing information, you develop the mutual respect that builds trusting relationships. It is the sales person who makes the 5th, 6th and 7th call who is the most successful.

Take the time to drill down to learn what is important to the prospect and uncover the problems you can help solve. Once you’ve invested in educating each other and identifying the mutual ben

Sandwich Board makes a Come Back

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A few weeks ago, I noted more retail establishments than usual using people-powered sandwich boards to attract customers. It appears that this rather old fashioned tactic is making a coming back or business owners are determined to try anything for promotion.

Today, I saw a guy in a suit under a sandwich board promoting tax services. In my mind, going to get your taxes done is not an impulse buy. Seeing a signboard might make me contemplate having pizza for dinner, but taxes? Are there people driving around with receipts looking for a tax office?

The tax man with a sandwich board may, however, plant in my mind the geographic location of the tax office. But does it make sense? Track how your customers find you so you can see if your advertising is working. You can ask walk in customers, or set up different phone numbers or web pages so you can determine if the ad or sandwich board worked. The more you know about your customers, the better able you will be to target your marketing campaign.

Images.google.com has a variety of sandwich board images to entertain you.

Twitter news offered by AMA

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As a past-president of the American Marketing Association Sacramento Valley, I am always delighted when the organization brings speakers to the membership that enrich the marketing field. Today the speaker on Twitter was Alejandro Reyes, Social Marketing Consultant & CEO of SacramentoMarketingLabs.com.

I agree with his sentiment that Twitter, like any other marketing tactic — web site, sales materials, public relations and the rest, should be authentic, build your brand, provide value to customers and be used strategically to differentiate your products and services.

You can follow my tweets on twitter @marketgal.

I’m back

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It has been easier to dash off a brief thought on twitter at marketgal than write something more substantial on my blog. That’s my excuse anyway. And, you can see my twitter posts from this blog in the right column.

Last year, I worked on the the Sierra College new Energy Technology Program that trains Solar Technicians. See my blog posts at http://www.sierraenergytech.com/?page_id=202

OLLI at Sierra College receives endowment

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The Placer Herald reported in “$1 million endowment keeps Sierra College adult classes alive” on June 19 that the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Sierra College received a $1 million endowment from the Bernard Osher Foundation. The program offers mentally stimulating courses without tests or homework for active adults. Rocklin Roseville Today also reported on the new endowment. Learn more at sierraolli.com. Marketing Action, Inc. has worked with Sierra College to promote this program for many years.

Fresh eggs reflect trends

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It is said that the simplest things in life offer the greatest riches. In time for Easter, our young chickens just started laying eggs. The speckled brown egg shells are beautiful. We enjoy the fresh organic eggs that can be gathered at home rather than at the grocery store.

Many of my neighbors are raising chickens for organic eggs. According to the Ag Marketing Resource Center: “Organics have grown at a rate of nearly 20 percent per year for the last seven years, and industry experts are continuing to forecast additional growth.”

According to Amy Sung of Supermarket News in a Feb. 9, 2009 article: “The market for organic foods has looked unstoppable in recent years, with sales growing from $2.1 billion in 2003 to an estimated $5.2 billion in 2008 – a 142% increase – according to Mintel International Group’s Organic Food Report, October 2008. And, despite the deepening recession, many experts believe that sales of organic products will continue to increase in 2009, albeit at a slower pace.”

The organic market is definitely a trend worth watching for your family or your business. As a side note, when I admired the neighbor’s chicken coop, he referred me to Backyard Chickens for design ideas. Today’s world is rich in opportunity with an amazing array of online resources right at your finger tips. You can find almost everything you want to know online to stimulate fresh ideas and house fresh eggs.

Prepare for objections to make the sale

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As part of training your sales team, prepare them to meet objections. Start by writing down every objection you’ve ever heard from a prospect – it costs too much, there isn’t time to discuss it now, not the right color, need to get approval, no budget available …. Then practice what your response might be by writing down several options for answering each objection. Have a fact, benefit and a customer story to back up your claim that you can overcome the objection.

You also need to prepare yourself by asking the customer plenty of questions early in the sales conversation about his or her needs. Then you can tie your response to something the customer said was important to him or her.

Frequently when dealing with an objection, the best thing to do is to start by agreeing with the prospect and then move to how you can solve that problem. For instance, “I can understand that keeping the cost down is important in making a buying decision. That’s exactly why many of our clients select our product. Although the initial cost may be a bigger investment, its durability and quality extend its life, making it a longer lasting and more convenient solution for less cost per use. In addition, the no interest payment plan helps with your cash flow and the replacement guarantee, that only our company offers, enable you to rest assured that this investment will pay off.”

Plan the flow of your sales conversation and have plenty of responses to objections ready to use to move the customer to buy your product or service.

Sierra College wins Career Technical Education grant

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On March 30 it was announced that “Sierra College wins $500,000 grant to attract students to technical careers.” According to the release, “In today’s economic downturn, skilled workers are fundamental to economic recovery. Sierra College received a $500,000 grant from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office that will support the region’s long-term economic viability through career technical education (CTE). From middle school to college, students must be equipped with technical skills to meet the future needs of emerging industries. The grant aligns education with business to develop relevant hands-on learning models, merge academics with technical education and fill the pipeline of future workers with those who are qualified to fill highly-paid, in-demand technical positions.

According the Sandra Scott, Director, Grant Development and Career Technical Education at Sierra College, this grant will promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. ‘Through partnerships with industry as well as middle and high schools, Sierra College’s STEM Community Collaborative is implementing innovative CTE models, strengthening existing programs, and attracting middle and high school students to STEM education,’ said Scott.”

Learn more at Roseville Rocklin Today and the Sacramento Business Journal. Check out Sierra College Training to learn more about Technical Education projects.

Newsletter Frequency & other tips

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One of the questions I was asked by a student in my Sierra College Community Education class last week on writing a marketing plan was – How frequently should you send out a newsletter? I suggest sending it out quarterly.

This gives you some flexibility if you get behind schedule or you want to mail it a little early to promote an event or special sales.

A value-added newsletter has relevant stories about people your prospects can relate to and it takes time to develop those stories.

I’d suggest a double-sided single sheet newsletter if you are mailing it and a one to two page newsletter if you are emailing it.

Include plenty of photos to draw your readers in.

Rather than talk about your company, show how customers have used your products or services to make money or save money, or save time or increase value for their customers.