Why would I want to convert?

There are a lot of businesses out there using a “profile” to promote their businesses. There are several benefits to having a “like page” instead:

Automatic Acceptance – Potential followers of your business have to request to become your friend and you have to accept their request. This really slows things down (consider having to accept 2 million friend requests!!). With a business page, you get the “Like” button. When someone clicks “Like” they are automatically granted access to your page and all its functionality.

Customizability – With a personal profile you don’t get a lot of extra features, but with a business page you can use a whole slew of apps to create, in essence, a whole website within the Facebook framework. You might find this article useful: http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/article.php/3856851/How-to-Customize-a-Business-Facebook-Page-with-Apps.htm

Easier to Promote – Facebook has a bunch of features around their site that makes it easier for people to find you and spread the word. For example, the right-hand side of the page often shows companies your friends like.

How to migrate your Facebook profile to a business page

This page from the Facebook help file shows how it’s done: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18918

..and when you’re ready for help promoting your business online, call us and we’ll tell you how for free.

This very second there are in your ear trying to get you to spend your hard-earned money (with them, of course!). So many people, in fact, that I have seen a lot of you just stop spending altogether! If you don’t need it to survive, like food, mortgage, electricity, etc., just forget it.

I know why you’ve stopped spending. You have heard empty promises and seen little in the way of results, times have changed, old stuff no longer works, and you’re sick of it. If it’s not proven to work, don’t do it.

But the economists tell me to spend my money…

Yes, but many of these people are paid a salary either by banks and financial institutions or the US Government. If you look at the short-term pro forma, then spending money today helps circulation tomorrow. What about 6 months from now? A year? Aren’t we in this problem because of short-term irresponsibility by banks, financial institutions, and government? (i.e. government allowing the loopholes that banks and financial institutions used to create short-term gains/long-term problems.)

Economists (politicians, etc.) tell you to spend money just as you were before (when you were complacent about it?!). They might even throw in a “be smart about it” routine, but they never back it up with real details or ways that you can really make a difference.

What they don’t tell you is HOW

How to spend money is just as important (if not more) as having money to spend! You need to look critically at every dollar going out, and be able to come up with a good reason it leaves your pocket. If you can’t come up with a logical reason, then STOP!

How you do…

Joe Vitale is a great sales and marketing trainer/expert/writer I really enjoy learning from. One of the things he teaches is that “people buy with emotion and justify their decision through logic.” It’s very true, and every good marketer knows it…

…therein lies the problem!

If you buy with emotion, you’re not truly in control are you? You’d like to think you make logical decisions but it’s likely you make a lot of decisions with emotion and you’re only making up the logic part on your own to justify that you think you’re right (are you?). Think of a time when you decided it was okay to have that soda at the register because you had been good all day. (Or a slice of cheesecake…) Or you kept working with that one merchant services company because you liked the guy and wanted to remain loyal- even though his fees were 2% higher per transaction than the other person you didn’t know.

We all do it. Don’t feel bad… but get over it.

How you should…

You need to make all business decisions with logic first. Every expense should support your single goal: making sales… and thus making PROFIT!

(Example: How do you make enough profit when 2% of your credit card sales are going to someone else. The term there is called “Profit Erosion”!)

Common Mistakes

When I was first starting out in business, I bought a printer, special custom pens, even a few cubicles, and of course a nice, bright, red sign on the road. I thought that if I “looked” like a business then I would be successful. I wound up printing things that just found their way to the trash. When I moved my office location, I counted up all the brochures and extra equipment and estimated about $6000 of wasted money because none of the stuff was ever really used! And that was just one closet of things I kept! (And BTW, my business was internet-based, so that sign on the road only led to walk-in traffic for people wanting to “buy a website.” What were they going to do, put it in their car and take it home with them?!)

Marketing is another area where businesses make a plethora of mistakes. Think about that yellow pages ad you spent several thousand dollars on- or that coupon in the clipper magazine that didn’t bring you any business. You have to try something in order to know if it doesn’t work, right? What if you had a guide who already has the experience of trying, failing AND succeeding?

Many businesses start out by getting an ad in the paper, buying a bunch of stuff they don’t need, wasting time on frivolous activities and ultimately hurting their profitability. The good news is you CAN avoid these problems.

What to do about it

Here’s a quick list to get you started:

• Print out a detailed list of all of your expenses and take a good, hard at each one of them. If you need it, keep it. If you don’t need it, take a wild guess….. yep, cut it!
• Look also at your marketing expenses both monthly and annually. Each one of your marketing activities should be trackable and you should be able to tell quickly if it’s making you enough ROI or not. Could you be spending those dollars on something else with a better ROI?
• What is your equipment like? What benefits (profits) could you get out of upgrading?
• Do you have someone who can answer these types of questions?

I have a questionnaire that we can work on together and identify a lot of areas where you can be saving money. Contact me to set up a meeting and we’ll figure that out together. You may qualify for my pro bono consulting so you might not need to pay anything for the consultation either!

Get Started Now

Even if you don’t contact me for help, make absolute sure your business is operating efficiently with each dollar that goes out!

Most initial sales contacts boil down to a small handful of themes:

-          Initial, cold outreach.

-          Who are you and what do you do?

-          How can I help you?

-          Responding to a specific question prompted by a promotion campaign.

Take a minute and look through your email’s ‘sent items’ folder and see if you can find any commonalities. Then, write those down into your ‘Frequent Emails’ list.

Once you have a list of the most common reasons you have communicated with people, you can write a script. **You probably already have the script written in one of these recent emails- use it, baby!

Example #1 – Initial outreach on LinkedIn to connect with someone

Hello! After looking thru your profile, I’d like to request adding you to my professional network on LinkedIn. Thank you, and looking forward to connecting!

- Jay Syzdek

P.S. If you see a way we might be able to work together or become referral partners, please Reply or message me!

BTW- if you’re connected to me on LinkedIn, you probably received this exact message from me! Looks like it works…

Example #2 – Already connected on LinkedIn and I want to see if we could be partners

Hello __firstname__,

I trust you’re having a great, productive day!

Ever since we got connected here, I’ve thought that we might be able to partner together in some way. So, I’m just sending you a quick message to see if you might be open to doing some possible business together for your network.

Let me know if you’re open to finding ways of doing something that benefits everybody, and maybe we can bounce some ideas around via email or phone!

I’m glad we’re connected, and look forward to talking with you!

- Jay

GET SOMEONE TO REVIEW IT

When you write your script, ask others to review it before sending out. You want  to make sure you sound personal and genuine. We all know where the delete button is and it’s too easy to press it on your message if it sounds at all contrived.

FINAL NOTE

Writing a script should speed up your communications, NOT replace genuine interaction. There are many places where a custom message is more appropriate, so be sure to find a good balance between the two for your company.

Tired of spending time on unqualified prospects? Getting a lot of randomness from your LinkedIn profile?

Here’s an exercise to help you maximize the impact of the time you spend communicating.

STEP 1: MAKE A LIST OF QUALIFICATIONS

Write out 5-8 very specific traits of an actual customer- and a customer who appreciates your product or service.

Example #1 – Business Coach
- Prospect is interested in *working* toward personal/business growth (i.e. not looking for a quick fix)
- Prospect has $200 per month to spend on a 2-session course
- The person is a decision-maker/in a position to actually buy my service
- Etc.

Example #2 – Car Battery Salesman
- Prospect owns a vehicle (it may seem obvious, but how would you like spending 20 minutes talking to a guy who only rides a bike!?)
- Prospect has not purchased a batter in the past 1 year
- The person has $40-100 to spend on a new battery
- Etc.

STEP 2: FOCUS ON QUALIFIED PEOPLE

It sounds simple, but think how often you wasted valuable time try to sell to someone who simply couldn’t buy from you. Be polite, of course, but you don’t have to work with these people. If you create a way to DIS-qualify people, you will have an easier time identifying those people who WILL buy. Then, you have MORE TIME to spend on them.

Want to skip all the fighting and get people straight to your website? Hand ‘em your business card. LOL!

I know you’re rolling your eyes, but I’m serious. Personal networking lets people get to know the real you and they stop caring about the rest of your competitors quickly!

Go to a mixer, invite some people to have a one-to-one over coffee, and tell them to go to your website.