Business Attitude: February 2016

February 22, 2016

What MakesTwitter Such a Great Tool - Making Us All BetterCommunicators - Marketing 101T

Twitter at 140

Tweet World - Twitter teaches us to be more concise in our statements as we only have 140 characters to make our pitch.
Real World - This is not a new thought - 35 years ago I used to practice elevator speeches - yes speeches. We had to know when we could repeat our favorite, when we had to use a new / different one, and how to keep it short enough that we could always include a link ( Hand shake, say your name (introduce yourself ) and hand them a card) - Ahhh, let's call that a oldern days tweet.

Repeating Tweet

Tweet World - When you find a good tweet, repeat it, maybe as much as every couple days. Every time you tweet, your audience is only about 3% of your followers (my estimate). That being the case, you can repeat your tweet 33 times without repeating it to the same audience.

Real World - Sometimes, people need to hear your pitch multiple times for it to sink in. This is no different than using the same sales pitch to different people at trade shows, sales calls and even over the phone - It's called following the script.

Understanding the Impact of Individual Tweets

Today, we can measure the impact of our tweets instantly allowing us to test more frequently, more broadly and more accurately with less subjective inclusion. This same need has always existed, but the online and social tools did not as they do today.

The key 'take-away' here is that the same data, information and techniques have always been needed, we just use different (and better) tools today. Old marketers / sellers need to adopt; new marketers / sellers need to learn why - "Knowing why we do something is what allows us to adapt" ~rel.

Bob Leonard
561-371-4113 (Call My Cell)
512-593-8830 (in Austin)

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February 17, 2016

“Live Free or Die” – it’s for more than NHites now – it’s about all of us – Talk to us…

Written for Published in Print Exclusively In the Windham Eagle, Windham, Maine - February 19, 2016

On Wednesday of this week, Apple CEO took an intended stand on privacy. They built the iPhone (current versions I believe) with no back door. Tim Cook’s product design foresight to protect privacy is going to change the way we think and how we interact with our government and how our government interacts with us – Rather than give you our opinion, what is your opinion?

Designing the iPhone with no back door prevents anyone from getting your data – Ever. It self-erases if you guess the password too many times.

Good thing or bad thing?

Express Your Opinion on our Facebook page

www.facebook.com/TheWindhamEagle

On a second note - We all hear the talking going on in the Republican Party. When I went through my media training (about 15 years ago) I was told to “… Have a thick skin…” and “as long as they are talking about you, you are winning”. Do you agree? What do you think of what’s going on? Remember, ”All Politics is Local”. Even here in the Lakes Region of Maine. I don’t make up these clichés.

Express Your Opinion on our Facebook page

www.face boo k.com/TheWindhamEagle

Bob Leonard
561-371-4113 (Call My Cell)

February 16, 2016

Why There Will Always Be Salespeople - Listening, Translating and Educating

First, let me open and say that marketing is an imperfect science - imperfect in that marketing never gets it right. New ingredients are added to the marketing mix all the time - the objective of marketing is to educate the buyer so to make the sale simpler - but it's a moving target - it's in the salesman's skill set to adjust the aim.

Salesperson

Without the salesperson, who would tell the prospect how their product fits the prospect's need (I think I took this, at least in context from something Steve Jobs once said).

It's the salesperson that educates / translates / explains to the prospect that their product is exactly what they are looking for. In the printing business we see it almost every day; I will introduce myself as part of a local printing company and that we can print "anything"; the person I just introduced myself to will then ask someone else "do you know anyone who does brochures" ???? The prospect did not need "anything" printed, they needed brochures ???? See the problem?

When I was in the systems business (systems integrator) I would never try to explain what we did as it was to complex. I would ask the prospects why they were attending this conference / trade show.(if they were) The prospects would describe in detail what he needed - abracadabra - my response- "That is exactly what we do..!!! What the prospect needed - from the prospects eyes.

I guess we could call this a lesson in listening - Don't bore the prospect with what you do; repeat back to them what they want - You must listen first and then tell the story.

A Wrapped Filing Cabinet

So what brings this whole thing up? I was talking to a prospect who was describing how he wanted his file cabinets custom painted to reflect what their business did (I'm listening). I suggested he wrap them (kinda like we do vehicles - you see the similarity, vehicles and file cabinets :/ ). Better, more damage/scratch resistant, easy to clean and much less expensive. Best of all, I had one in the office to show him. Who da thunk... He would have never knocked on my door for this.

Bob Leonard
561-371-4113 (Call My Cell)
512-593-8830 (in Austin)

February 5, 2016

The Speed of News in Today's World of Trending Information - Civic Journalism Defined

I am amazed more everyday by the speed of news - I keep a Twitter window open on my browser to glance at every now and then - TriBeCa was trending this morning (quickly moving up) - a crane had just (minutes ago) collapsed in NYC - scary . . . I am just amazed at how different the news distribution business has changed in the last 10 years. Not that you should watch it, nor that it should be important to you - but it is to many people there.

Citizen and civic journalism has been defined - not by its quality, but its speed.

Bob Leonard
561-371-4113 (Call My Cell)
512-593-8830 (in Austin)