Casual Articles - Business

Living In A Disruptive Age-Public Relations In A Rapidly Changing Era (The India Story)
Indeed, these are wonderful times we live in. I prefer to call this the Disruptive Age - an age where almost anything, anyone (and not to mention, any country) can disrupt even century old concepts, beliefs and businesses. An era where the old gives way to the new with ease, a time when anything is possible!This era has also seen a resurgence of some old business concepts like public relations which have reinvented themselves and have taken a prominent central stage in all other businesses. Till some years ago, it was rare to find someone who understood public relations, and today while many understand it, not everyone who does uses public relations to do what it is meant to do, viz to build brands. Reputation is the most basic building block of brand image, and public relations is arguably one of the most reliable tools of reputation building, making it indispensable to brand building in the current disruptive era.For practitioners of PR in India, 2006 will be considered a watershed. It is the year when public relations shifted gear into overdrive and, as a

enough money to stay in business as a coach."

Q: "And what could 'losing your business' lead to?"
A: "Losing my business could lead to me losing my house!"

Now you've turned a mundane "marketing problem" into a seriously "scary life problem" all you need to do is direct their attention to the solution...

Q: "Ow! Losing your house would be awful. So what are you going to do to make sure it doesn't come to that?"

Here's how it may look in print or as a presentation. You don't necessarily have to spell everything out because you can ask questions in print too.

"Many coaches today find it hard to attract new clients. While this is a common problem the consequences can be devastating as I'll tell you shortly...

If you're serious about being successful you may already be doing lots of things to try and get clients in. Perhaps you've been taking advice from someone who's done marketing for bluechips but the results still aren't coming. You'r

Do You Market Within Your Organization?
Do you use your marketing to sell inside your organization? Few projects are on time and under budget? These failures can be devastating to the individual, costly for companies and damaging to morale. Why do so many projects fall short of their initial expectations? There is a huge difference between who has a plan and hits the ground running, but as important is making an impact or creating a burning desire to get it done . Who is best at creating a burning desire than your marketing department?Do you include them in your internal communications and projects? Are you ever forced to sell an internal project? Would it help if your marketing department was part of it? On the next important initiative work with marketing to sell the project within the organization! Marketing needs to play as important role in your internal communication as they do in your external communication.Internal Marketing Suggestions:1. Give it a name? So many times the sales & marketing will call it by a company name and operations will use it by the work order number. We cause

Education plus Motivation is a powerful formula. But how do you ensure the motivation level in your prospective customers or yourself, for that matter, is really as high as it could be? Easy. You make sure to build pain into your motivation strategy. Our basic survival instincts mean that given a choice between finding pleasure or avoiding pain - we'll usually opt to avoid pain.

Once you've persuaded someone to move away from something, it becomes much easier to provide them with something desirable to move towards.

7 Tips For Using Pain To Build Motivation

This "pain" approach can add extra power to everything from sales letters, motivating self talk, sales meetings, presentations and proposals. It is powerful though, so use it with caution and always be aware of the positive outcome you're after for you and your prospect.

Just a little safety warning before I begin... Make sure you have something positive to move towards once you've encouraged someone (or yourself) to move away from something. Motivation without direction can be destructive.

1. What's Up?

Find out or describe the current situation to set up the big picture and to provide a starting point for investigating the problems and pain.

In a sales letter, opener's such as "Have you ever..." or questions that presuppose a problem/opportunity (eg "Are you making the most of...") are perfect for this.

"Have You Ever Lost Weight With A Diet Only To Put It Straight Back On Again As Soon As You Stop?"

"Are You Making The Most of Your Talents?"

When having a conversation the question "What?" is powerful too...

"WHAT's your biggest/most immediate challenge right now?"

"If you could change one thing about your current business situation then WHAT would it be?"

"WHAT are you currently doing to get new customers?"

"In solving problem X WHAT have you tried so far?"

"WHAT's going on for you right now?"

The "Situation" is a foundation for exploration. Listen carefully when talking with someone or describe the situation in vivid detail when presenting/writing.

2. What's The Story?

Once you have enough data you need to summarise it as a story. In a conversation this can be repeated back to the person you're talking with. In a sales message this story will be your framework to embellish. It's always good to do this for your own reference anyway.

Let's use an example: Say I was trying to sell Lean Marketing training courses to coaches.

I've worked with enough of them to know that a common situation they'll find themselves in is as follows...

SITUATION

They seem to be doing lots of things to promote their business but new clients don't seem to be forthcoming. They've perhaps employed the support of another coach who used to do marketing for a big blue chip company but none of the suggestions they made seemed to work either. This story gives me lots of starting points for building their pain...

* things that work for bigger firms aren't working for your small coaching business...

* doing lots of things with no positive results...

* clients are scarce...

But in essence, they have too few clients and have run out of ideas for attracting new ones... This is what I'll use as my starting point.

3. Build The Consequences Using So What?

Once you've got a problem/situation story you can pick a pain theme to work from to magnify the potential seriousness of the problem. Asking the simple question, "So What?", works here.

Here's an example of how to use it in conversation...
Q: "So what could 'too few clients' lead to?"
A: "Too few clients could lead to less profit"

Q: "And what could 'less profit' lead to?"
A: "Less profit could lead to less personal income"

Q: "And what could 'less personal income' mean?"
A: "Less personal income could mean I won't have enough money to stay in business as a coach."

Q: "And what could 'losing your business' lead to?"
A: "Losing my business could lead to me losing my house!"

Now you've turned a mundane "marketing problem" into a seriously "scary life problem" all you need to do is direct their attention to the solution...

Q: "Ow! Losing your house would be awful. So what are you going to do to make sure it doesn't come to that?"

Here's how it may look in print or as a presentation. You don't necessarily have to spell everything out because you can ask questions in print too.

"Many coaches today find it hard to attract new clients. While this is a common problem the consequences can be devastating as I'll tell you shortly...

Advertising Specialty Mugs
Advertising specialty is the imprinting of brand information or a company logo on literally tens of thousands of diverse products to help promote a particular company name or the product theme.Mugs have been the most common and most preferable advertising specialty for many companies, as they suit almost all brands very well without misrepresenting the company. They have also proven to be very effective promotional products, because they are used by the customer, and each time they are used the brand comes to mind. Mugs have been known to have most recall. Also, it has been proven that mugs are generally used by almost all Americans and is a product that everyone enjoys receiving as a gift. Footwear and clothes need to be available in the customer's size and may not be taken by the customer if not suitable to their tastes or size. Mugs, on the other hand, are readily accepted as they have only one purpose to serve for everyone. Most of the time, imprinting is done on white mugs because it is easier to print any color on white. Once you've decided what mug you wan

e (or yourself) to move away from something. Motivation without direction can be destructive.