You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression!

You know the saying: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”; and equally, it is reasonable to say that, what your customers say about you (especially online) matters, right?

When consumers have something to say, everyone can hear it – everywhere. How good is your social media listening? Are you managing your online reviews? Why are your customers leaving? Can you discern what’s really important for your business?” ~ Cargo Digital

A First Impression Is All About ReputationFirst Impression

Your online reputation is essential and with today’s online review sites being so prevalent, the need for reputation management is crucial!

So, what is your reputation? What are people saying about you?

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Often overlooked because of its non-tangible life within a business, the long-term reputation of perception is always at play; and perception is never a negotiation, it is always one direction in the marketplace. That direction is from the angle of the consumer.

A First Impression And Subsequent Reputation

First Impression factors are distinct and represent the actual character — or behaviour in many cases — of the company.  There have been many examples across the business landscape over the years, and there are some great lessons to learn from others’ mistakes.

“BP [learned] this the hard way. The energy giant [had] striven to portray itself as a responsible corporation that cares about the environment. Its efforts have included its extensive “Beyond Petroleum” advertising campaign and a multibillion-dollar initiative to expand its alternative-energy business. But several major events in the past [few] years are now causing the public to question whether BP is truly so exceptional.” ~ Harvard Business Review February 2007

Reputation And Brand Management

First Impression And The 4-Truths Of A World-Class Reputation

1. Business Rationale: Building and protecting corporate reputation has a direct business impact.

2. Strategy Informed by Intelligence: Most firms do not need more data; they need better intelligence from the data they get.

3. Management and Accountability: You can’t manage reputation from a corporate silo. Reputation and support are driven on a day-to-day basis by the actions and communications from people across the organization.

4 Activation: Building trust and support are done across three influencer channels: a) what people experience directly with your company, b) what you say through your marcoms, and c) what other people say about you.

Let’s talk about your reputation and how you are making a first impression. You can contact me directly here.


 

Your Best Asset Is Your Ability To Sell Yourself

“Sell yourself” is such a ubiquitous term. Even as I say it, at least one of you is saying: “I don’t get it.”.

That is because I believe that the ‘end goal’ is selling, not selling yourself.

The approach on how to sell yourself should be more marketing methodology than in the sales methodology in the development. To successfully sell yourself, you’ll need to do these Top-4 things:

  1. Know your “brand”;
  2. Be a storyteller;
  3. Know your audience; and
  4. Show don’t tell.

power of why circleAs I covered in my “The Power Of Why” blog post, a huge part of inspiring others to take action, is to clearly state ‘why’ you do what you do. Within that, you must first know yourself i.e. what drives you, what gets you up in the morning.

Someone who exemplifies this is Alan L. Sklover. He writes a weekly blog about employer and employee legal issues — and this quote was offered to Alan by one of his followers and he shared it.:

“Want a new client or customer? First, you must “sell” the value of your product or service to them. Want a raise or promotion? First, you must “sell” your value to your employer. Want a new job? First, you must “sell” yourself to the new employer. An effort is the “horse” that pulls the “cart” of opportunity. Always been that way; always will be. It’s a challenge if you accept it; a continual disappointment if you don’t.” ~ Patrice of Santa Rosa, New Mexico


So how do YOU start the process of how to “sell yourself”?

Schedule 30-minutes with me and I will buy you coffee and walk you through the process. —Yes, I just said I will buy you coffee!! Ask me how.


 

Top 5 Ways Marketing Professionals Help Your Business

Here Is Another Top 5 List To Help Your Business Grow!

Marketing ProfessionalsOkay, this will be a bold statement: “Marketing professionals are the unsung heroes of the business world.” There I said it. There is no glory, no fanfare, and no one — for the most part — understands what we do to help their business.

I am hoping to change some of that with this post!

So, Why Do Marketing Professionals So Often Get Ignored?

Marketing Professionals Know No Customers Equals No BusinessIn today’s world, the act of marketing often gets confused with sales, and while the act of sales is important and ultimately the end result, they are two very different methodologies.

Many businesses operate based on “sales-out-the-door” — and they should — as, without sales, there would be no business. However, what is driving the lead conversions to the sales team is the creative methodologies of your marketing team.

That all said, here in the information age — as it has been for hundreds of years before — the way business marketing is done can be the difference between success and failure in bringing in quality prospects to whom to sell your service or widget.

Marketing Professionals Feeling Ignored

Marketing Professionals Know That It Has Always Been This Way!

In fact, today’s funnel has been completely flipped on its head, finally giving validity to the power of not only the deliverance of leads but the deliverance of good, qualified leads that allow you to close the sales process faster.

That said, the biggest fault has also fallen upon the shoulders of your marketing team.

“A salesman’s mistake may cost little. An advertiser’s mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.” ~ Claude Hopkins in Scientific Marketing

Marketing Professionals - New Marketing Funnel
Click For Larger Image

Today’s purchasing funnel is now 75% marketing and 25% sales, whereas even as recent as 15 years ago — circa 2002 — ‘sales’ was the dominant focus to drive business at 60% sales and 40% marketing.

Here is my Top-5 list for how we marketing professionals can help your business.

#1 – We Know Why People Make Decisions…

Trendsetters like Claude Hopkins or Simon Sinek know that when you market to the “emotional-why”, you are marketing directly to the part of the brain that makes a decision. This ‘direct response marketing’ methodology is used by 100% of today’s successful businesses such as Apple, Inc..

#2 – We Focus On The Perspective Of The Buyer…

There have been many times when I have seen marketing that is all about the features. Unfortunately, it is little about the benefit. You have the best widget or service, or you claim to have a low price, you may even claim to have all the right colours & all the right sizes — and within your message, it was forgotten that all the prospective buyer wants to know is how you will solve their problem or fix their need. Remember, benefits sell; features don’t!

#3 – We Deliver Better, More Qualified Leads…

The shorter the cycle, the faster you can grow. Good marketers deliver leads to your business. The ones that are qualified can then be given an offer from the sales team. Quite often businesses have their sales teams out there trying to market, but they do it like salespeople. Some will be successful, but the majority will falter. Today’s discerning customer has more direct access to your competition, and the bigger the impact, the deeper the relationship must be! Simply, driving better/more qualified leads to your sales team will bring in your profits faster.

#4 – Brand Continuity…

All us marketers say that consistency is important, but “why” is it important? Brand continuity affects what people think about your company. People are emotionally driven to buy and as such, an inconsistent brand will not drive confidence. The more consistent your messaging, the more consistent your branding — whether via words, design, offerings or perspective. That’s why it’s so important to develop standards for brand consistency in your business.

#5 – We Are Professionals At Showing Value…

Price is often pitched as value and just as often, they are not related. There are two aspects to the definition of value: ‘desired value’ and ‘perceived value’. Desired value refers to what customers desire in a product or service. Perceived value is the benefit that a customer believes he or she received from a product after it was purchased. One-hundred percent of all generated value is delivered by your marketing team before they even talk to a salesperson.

And there you have it.  If you found value in this post, please share it.

Are you looking for some quick insight and/or need some help? Phone calls are always free. Call Toll-Free throughout North America 1-888-502-3523

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Customer Experience

Artificial Intelligence — It is no surprise that technology is amazing, but when technology out-thinks, out-creates, and out-plays us humans, are we ready?

Artificial Intelligence

What’s Next? Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Customer Experience… oh yeah, that is already here.

As a professor of human nature — I am not really a professor — Artificial Intelligence (or AI) fascinates me.
The level of “computations per second” needed has been exponentially increasing over the past 30 years and most recently we have begun to have the understanding of the quantum world and entangled particles, which is what led Dr. Feynman to have a vision.

“In quantum physics, entangled particles remain connected so that actions performed on one affect the other, even when separated by great distances. The phenomenon so riled Albert Einstein he called it “spooky action at a distance.” The rules of quantum physics state that an unobserved photon exists in all possible states simultaneously but, when observed or measured, exhibits only one state.” ~ LiveScience.com

The research being done on this is still in its infancy, however, quantum computers tap directly into an unimaginably vast fabric of reality—the strange and counterintuitive world of quantum mechanics.

Artificial Intelligence - Quantum ComputingThe story behind the theory of ‘quantum computing’ is about 35-years-old when Nobel Prize-Winning physicist Richard Feynman fostered the idea of a ‘quantum computer’. 

Physicists — like Feynman — have a unique way of looking at things and while the thought of increasing a computers speed had — in 1982 — been around for about Forty-years, the theory of quantum computing blew the best minds of the day, and in many ways shaped the path we have been on ever since.

Artificial Intelligence in MarketingThe Next Big Step For Artificial Intelligence

It seems that there’s no question that AI will play a large role in humanity’s future. In fact, it is already here. Cortana, Siri, Alexa, Google’s voice all are early AI. But what is it missing? There are many schools of thought, however, there are two main agreed-upon hurdles — computation speed and Interface.

The fastest computers can do 33,860 trillion calculations per second — or in computing terms 33.8 petaflops.

Artificial IntellegenceArtificial Intelligence — Where Are We Today?

In 2010, the Tianhe-2 knocked the US Energy Department’s Titan machine off the No 1 spot. The Titan achieved a paltry 17.59 petaflops per second by comparison. By comparison, even further, the Quantum D-Wave 2 Is 3,600 Times Faster than Tianhe-2.

“Quantum computing differs from classical computing at its most fundamental level. While traditional computers rely on the alternate bit states of 1 and 0 to store data, quantum computers exploit the fuzzy effects of quantum mechanics, allowing its “qubits” to exist as a 1, 0, or both simultaneously, a.k.a “superposition.” So while a traditional computer will sequentially explore the potential solutions to a mathematical optimization problem, the quantum system looks at every potential solution simultaneously, known as quantum annealing, and returns answers—not just the single “best” but nearly 10,000 close alternatives as well—in roughly a second.” ~ Read more about the D-Wave

Artificial Intelligence needs Quantum Computing not because of speed, but because of the interface.

 

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