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Casual Articles - News You Can Use - Winning More New Business From Media Coverage
Sometimes when I read franchise prospectuses I am struck by the tone used in the copy. One would think that franchises are charitable institutions judging from the way that they seem to be practically giving away their business to prospective franchisees!However, every now and then the mask slips and the true nature of the relationship becomes clear. Here are a couple of quotes from an article written for the benefit of franchise owners.'Business owners considering launching a franchise should be draconian in the way they manage franchisees''In a nutshell, micro-manage (your franchisees). Weekly reports are filed and any discrepancies or signs for concern are followed up with the franchisor immediately. It may sound harsh but it is the only way to really keep tabs on the business'These quotes come form an accountancy firm that specialises in advising franchise owners. The advice backs up the experie
Your product portfolio. As a sales person, you are not expected to be an independent witness. I have never yet met a sales person who, at the end of the meeting, concluded that I would be better off buying a competitor’s product because it is more reliable and costs less. You are expected to point out all the good things about the product and so, for that matter, is your company’s brochure. But you can have a secret weapon – media coverage. “O
The most common company naming trap is this – creating a new business name that’s accurate and descriptive, but utterly forgettable. And it’s easy to see how it happens. Unlike real life application, naming is usually done in a vacuum -- with no context, no accompanying logo, web site or brochure copy. A group of key decision makers sit in a boardroom and toss names around in the air. And with no supporting cast, no background, no props, the good names often seem disconnected and even ridiculous. It’s at this stage the mind wants to make sense of the names and without context, without supporting elements, it defaults to free associations from the past. This is what kills off many a great brand name.Imagine a committee looking for a brand name for a new computer company. Someone suggests the word “apple.”“Apple?” the group reacts in shock and bewilderment.“That makes me think of my mother saying ‘One bad ap
In reality, unless you are placed in a highly targeted magazine or radio station, fewer people will notice your company than you would like. Out of the few who do notice you, only a small proportion will make any effort to contact you.
Now I am not saying that PR is not a worthwhile means of raising awareness of what you do; no doubt it will conjure up some fresh leads and inquiries. It may well open a few doors. PR can lead to interest from potential business partners or even end with your company becoming national news. You may even end up being mentioned in the House of Commons. However, in my opinion this is not the only way that PR can work for your company. I believe it can work just as well at the latter stages in the sales cycle.
Creating favourable coverage for your company or creating stories about new product launches creates credibility. Most of your competitors, unless they are very large, will not bother with PR. They will probably not have the resources to create PR in house and they are unlikely to hire their own PR firm. As a result, they will not be generating regular stories in the media. So if you are, you will instantly have a real advantage over them. How? By collecting and presenting the stories about your company when you are in front of prospects. Here are 6 opportunities that you may have to impress clients at crucial moments in the buying cycle.
Your office. If you are inviting a prospect a meeting in your office, make sure that you have news stories about your company in frames on the walls. The more stories the better (provided they haven’t yellowed with age). What sort of impression does this create when they walk in? It’s impressive. It means that you are a ‘famous’ company - most people are at least a little impressed with celebrity. Having a few press cuttings around doesn’t make you Terry Wogan, but it does make you newsworthy, and therefore a more exciting company to do business with. It also establishes credibility – which is so important in the eyes of a prospect at this time.
Your showroom. Have you ever been in a garage waiting to pick up your car from a service? Often you can be kept waiting hours. Perhaps there are times when your customers sit and wait around to be served? Some garages will let you watch the TV or provide you with newspapers. Some dealers (the smart ones) will also let you read the latest (good) reviews of their cars. You can read about all the latest models, compare their car to their inferior competitors etc. Being car magazines there are plenty of colourful pictures of the new models. Does it make you feel differently about their cars? Quite possibly. You may not normally buy a car magazine, so you are amazed at how much coverage the new model has generated (there are a lot of car magazines, who have a lot of space to fill) and it could well influence your decision if you are thinking of changing cars in the near future. What is true of car showrooms could be equally true of dentists, exhaust centre and anywhere else where your customer has to regularly sit and wait.
Your product portfolio. As a sales person, you are not expected to be an independent witness. I have never yet met a sales person who, at the end of the meeting, concluded that I would be better off buying a competitor’s product because it is more reliable and costs less. You are expected to point out all the good things about the product and so, for that matter, is your company’s brochure. But you can have a secret weapon – media coverage. “Of
Opportunity costs is a term used in economics to explain that for every decision made in business (or personally) there is both an opportunity and a cost associated with that opportunity. If you have never been exposed to opportunity cost before it may not make a lot of sense, so I will summarize the concept in simple terms so you understand this very important concept.Let’s say you can only have either chicken or hamburger for dinner tonight, but not both. The opportunity to have chicken will cost you the opportunity to have hamburger. Likewise, if you choose to have hamburger, it will cost you the opportunity to have chicken. The opportunity cost analogy can be applied to every decision we make, every waking moment of our lives. When you wake up in the morning, you can choose to wear slippers or shoes but not both. If you choose shoes, it will cost you the opportunity to wear slippers and vice versa. Give this s
Creating favourable coverage for your company or creating stories about new product launches creates credibility. Most of your competitors, unless they are very large, will not bother with PR. They will probably not have the resources to create PR in house and they are unlikely to hire their own PR firm. As a result, they will not be generating regular stories in the media. So if you are, you will instantly have a real advantage over them. How? By collecting and presenting the stories about your company when you are in front of prospects. Here are 6 opportunities that you may have to impress clients at crucial moments in the buying cycle.
Your office. If you are inviting a prospect a meeting in your office, make sure that you have news stories about your company in frames on the walls. The more stories the better (provided they haven’t yellowed with age). What sort of impression does this create when they walk in? It’s impressive. It means that you are a ‘famous’ company - most people are at least a little impressed with celebrity. Having a few press cuttings around doesn’t make you Terry Wogan, but it does make you newsworthy, and therefore a more exciting company to do business with. It also establishes credibility – which is so important in the eyes of a prospect at this time.
Your showroom. Have you ever been in a garage waiting to pick up your car from a service? Often you can be kept waiting hours. Perhaps there are times when your customers sit and wait around to be served? Some garages will let you watch the TV or provide you with newspapers. Some dealers (the smart ones) will also let you read the latest (good) reviews of their cars. You can read about all the latest models, compare their car to their inferior competitors etc. Being car magazines there are plenty of colourful pictures of the new models. Does it make you feel differently about their cars? Quite possibly. You may not normally buy a car magazine, so you are amazed at how much coverage the new model has generated (there are a lot of car magazines, who have a lot of space to fill) and it could well influence your decision if you are thinking of changing cars in the near future. What is true of car showrooms could be equally true of dentists, exhaust centre and anywhere else where your customer has to regularly sit and wait.
Your product portfolio. As a sales person, you are not expected to be an independent witness. I have never yet met a sales person who, at the end of the meeting, concluded that I would be better off buying a competitor’s product because it is more reliable and costs less. You are expected to point out all the good things about the product and so, for that matter, is your company’s brochure. But you can have a secret weapon – media coverage. “O
When you examine the Internet as a whole, it becomes clear that the World Wide Web is an integral part of the global business paradigm. That being said, employers can get in touch with computer programmers in Zimbabwe or an Internet Technology professional in Bombay with the simple click of a mouse.This ability to reach out and hire someone has modified the way companies can conduct business. For one, it does not require them to keep a full staff of professionals, thereby reducing overhead costs. If a company needs someone with specialty in a certain area, they can just get out on the web and find that particular person. With human resources becoming such a fluid mode of hiring in certain sectors, someone needed to come up with a place where outsourcing software could be easy, convenient and accessible to everyone.These websites have allowed people to market themselves in a variety of ways. For instance, the site
Your office. If you are inviting a prospect a meeting in your office, make sure that you have news stories about your company in frames on the walls. The more stories the better (provided they haven’t yellowed with age). What sort of impression does this create when they walk in? It’s impressive. It means that you are a ‘famous’ company - most people are at least a little impressed with celebrity. Having a few press cuttings around doesn’t make you Terry Wogan, but it does make you newsworthy, and therefore a more exciting company to do business with. It also establishes credibility – which is so important in the eyes of a prospect at this time.
Your showroom. Have you ever been in a garage waiting to pick up your car from a service? Often you can be kept waiting hours. Perhaps there are times when your customers sit and wait around to be served? Some garages will let you watch the TV or provide you with newspapers. Some dealers (the smart ones) will also let you read the latest (good) reviews of their cars. You can read about all the latest models, compare their car to their inferior competitors etc. Being car magazines there are plenty of colourful pictures of the new models. Does it make you feel differently about their cars? Quite possibly. You may not normally buy a car magazine, so you are amazed at how much coverage the new model has generated (there are a lot of car magazines, who have a lot of space to fill) and it could well influence your decision if you are thinking of changing cars in the near future. What is true of car showrooms could be equally true of dentists, exhaust centre and anywhere else where your customer has to regularly sit and wait.
Your product portfolio. As a sales person, you are not expected to be an independent witness. I have never yet met a sales person who, at the end of the meeting, concluded that I would be better off buying a competitor’s product because it is more reliable and costs less. You are expected to point out all the good things about the product and so, for that matter, is your company’s brochure. But you can have a secret weapon – media coverage. “O
A friend has informed you that there is a job opening in his office. You’re intrigued, especially since it seems as if it is time to move on from your current job. You immediately begin the process of applying for the position, drafting your cover letter and fine-tuning your resume.However, you’re forgetting a very important point. Before you do anything else, you should research the company you are hoping to work for.At first, you might wonder why such research is necessary. After all, research is time-consuming and can be difficult at times. Also, if you are planning to apply to more than one company, you may think you simply don’t have the time to do any research.The fact is, you cannot afford not to research prospective employers. Such research can help you to write more effective cover letters. It can also prepare you well for your initial interview, as well as any follow-up interviews you migh
Your showroom. Have you ever been in a garage waiting to pick up your car from a service? Often you can be kept waiting hours. Perhaps there are times when your customers sit and wait around to be served? Some garages will let you watch the TV or provide you with newspapers. Some dealers (the smart ones) will also let you read the latest (good) reviews of their cars. You can read about all the latest models, compare their car to their inferior competitors etc. Being car magazines there are plenty of colourful pictures of the new models. Does it make you feel differently about their cars? Quite possibly. You may not normally buy a car magazine, so you are amazed at how much coverage the new model has generated (there are a lot of car magazines, who have a lot of space to fill) and it could well influence your decision if you are thinking of changing cars in the near future. What is true of car showrooms could be equally true of dentists, exhaust centre and anywhere else where your customer has to regularly sit and wait.
Your product portfolio. As a sales person, you are not expected to be an independent witness. I have never yet met a sales person who, at the end of the meeting, concluded that I would be better off buying a competitor’s product because it is more reliable and costs less. You are expected to point out all the good things about the product and so, for that matter, is your company’s brochure. But you can have a secret weapon – media coverage. “O
Persons who regularly travel by air are commonly faced with a series of problems regarding the arrival at the airport as well as the departure from the airport, often being delayed by the intense traffic on the highway and in the areas situated in the proximity of the airport. Due to overcrowding and the chaos characteristic to major airports, persons who travel to the airport by car usually lose lots of time looking for a place to park their cars and are often required to pay expensive parking fees simply for stationing a few minutes in the vicinity of the airport! Under these circumstances, even traveling by taxi to or from the airport can become an undesirable experience. The bigger the city and the more popular the airport, the more time people lose before arriving at their destination.In order to overcome such common problems, a very good option is to rely on a prominent, competitive airport shuttle service-offerin
Your product portfolio. As a sales person, you are not expected to be an independent witness. I have never yet met a sales person who, at the end of the meeting, concluded that I would be better off buying a competitor’s product because it is more reliable and costs less. You are expected to point out all the good things about the product and so, for that matter, is your company’s brochure. But you can have a secret weapon – media coverage. “Of course you would expect me to tell you how well the system performs, but this is what the newspapers have said about us.” It is at this point that you can unleash a pile of clippings - many of which will be articles which are more or less reprints of the press releases that you sent out, but some of which will be proper articles which really do report on what an innovative / money saving / compact / unusual products you have produced. It is like taking an independent critical set of witnesses who can vouch for your character on every sales call.
In written proposals. You are expected to present your product or service in its best light when preparing a written proposal. But the more independent it appears, and the less hype that goes into it, the more believable it becomes. The danger of course, is that it can become a very dull document. Direct quotes from radio interviews, TV stories or trade magazines can be a good way to back up the point you are making. In effect you are saying - don’t just take my word for this, listen to what the media have to say about it.
On your website. Whilst the article, when it was originally written or broadcast, may have been seen or heard by a wide group of people, most of whom had no interest in who you are or what you sell, people visiting your website are very different. Many of them will be interested in who you are and may want to buy what you sell. I can’t think, therefore, of a more suitable place for the press release that you sent out to appear, enhanced by extracts from the magazines which featured your story. Not only will people be interested to read these stories, once again they increase your credibility, keep your site fresh and will help you to get picked up by search engines. Steve Hawkins, Director of web design company ‘Caged Fish’ who specialise in website optimisation says, “The more current you can keep your website, the higher its rankings on search engines such as Google. This is because the search engines rate the fact that you take the time to keep your site up to date and refresh its contents on a regular basis. If you include the name of the trade magazine that ran your story in the first place, you may also appear when people search under that name. ”
Staying in touch with prospects. So you made your sales pitch and the prospect was interested - but not enough to buy today because they have to take it back to their board or maybe discuss it at the next staff meeting. Perhaps even your most enthusiastic prospects take months or even years to make a decision. Newspaper cuttings about how the product is developing, detailing account wins and featuring expansion stories about your company can all help to reinforce the prospect’s feelings of confidence in your organisation, make them feel involved and even prompt their memory to take action.
So perhaps it’s worth going back through any recent media coverage and looking at it again. Could it help build your company’s credibility, keep prospects warm or build up the trust of a prospect? If you don’t have a PR programme currently in place, perhaps you can now see how useful media coverage can be at building credibility and helping to close the deal. Now is the time to start making a habi
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