You can Use Social Media as a Powerful Business tool

If you believe that social media is a fad or the end of face to face communications as we know it. In both instances you may be wrong. Yes of course the technological changes all around us, have changed the business and social landscape. Bear in mind that social media is only one small part of those changes, which if used properly, will most certainly be to your advantage. Ok, so if social media presents us with so many potential advantages, how can you turn the feeling of overwhelm, into something useful?

Taking advantage of Social Media

Action Idea: I have written this article, detailing four simple steps, to take you from an uncomfortable to a place, to a new place where social media can become a really powerful business tool. I will guide you to use your strengths to leverage the most from this medium. So whether you are better at writing paragraphs, or you are an expert at pinning things to virtual bulletin boards or you have a flare for making videos, there is scope for you to use social media to your advantage. The key is to play to your strengths and to work to attract a tribe of loyal followers.

Step 1: Clearly understand what you sell and then identify a tribe of individuals, who would want exactly that. Your tribe is effectively the group of people, who you would want to positively influence, with your thoughts and offerings. The best way to align yourself with the right tribe is to discover a group, who align with you in three key areas. You must know what their challenges are and that you have the right solution for them, you must really want to help and support them, you must want to give and receive value from them. 

Examples: 

•  If you are a real estate agent, your tribe may be community members, who may be or will be looking to buy residential property.
• If you are a dentist, your tribe may consist of current patients and local community members, who can become new patients.
• If you are a small business owner, your tribe may be current customers, anyone who needs what you sell or anyone, who can influence them.

As you build a strong tribe and you consistently offer them value, the relationship of trust will grow and they will begin to trust both you and your organisation.

Step 2: Get a voice. To effectively use social media, you need a voice or persona, which reflects, who you are or who you want to be seen as, by anyone, who bumps into you, online. These people may never meet you for coffee or even walk into your store. Your tribe will get to know you by your posts, videos, comments and discussions you get involved in. Your style and the voice you use, will either pull people in and engage them or if it is wrong for that particular tribe, even potentially push them away.

Action Idea: When building your voice, think about what your tribe would love to hear. What will make them like what you have to say and return to listen day after day? As is the case in the face to face world, your voice will grow as you learn more and apply your knowledge, by putting great content online. The best advice when speaking online is to always be authentic, personable and approachable.

Step 3: Go to where you tribe already meet. Remember that every group, which you are trying to engage and positively influence already goes somewhere to hang out, in the social media ether. To be really successful on social media, you need to find out exactly where that is. The best success is to start looking for them on the big three forums, namely LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Go to where your communities already are and plant your flag, so that people will spot you and begin to huddle round.

Step 4: Start today: Remember that social media tribes build on themselves, never by themselves. Discover the right community, plant your flag, start a relevant conversation to attract members of the right tribe and then gradually bring people back to your tent. Work your way systematically through these four steps and you will begin to build a perfect tribe of loyal followers and build a community, which will buy what you have to sell.

Motivational Speakers    

Would you like to Make Better Choices in Life and at Work?

I was just like you, until recently and naively believed that when faced with a choice, it was only possible to choose one or the other. Since reading a few books, articles and research papers on decision making and testing the principals myself, I believe that with a little creative thinking, it is often possible to have both. As Steve Cole, vice president of research and development at HopeLab, a silicon valley, a not for profit organisation so eloquently said and has demonstrated on numerous occasions. “Any time in life I am tempted to think, Should I do this or that, instead ask yourself, Is there anyway, I can do this AND that”?

As Steve says and has demonstrated on numerous occasions, it is possible. With creative, innovative thinking, it is not only feasible, but possible to have both. A perfect example of this was when HopeLab, wanted to find a partner to work with them, to create an effective way of measuring the amount of daily exercise kids were getting.

There were a number of different companies around, who could do the work for them. If they had used the usual contracting mind-set, they would have asked for proposals from all of them and then awarded a huge contract to the winner. Instead of following this limiting approach, Steve asked five of the potential to produces to build a simple prototype. As a non-profit, they did not have an unlimited budget, so to do this; effectively Steve only got the five potential producers of the measurement device, to build just the first step in the project. 

This approach ensured that Steve had multiple design alternatives, which allowed him to either pick his favourite or even better, he had the option to combe the best features of several together. In round two, he was then able to weed out the vendors who were unresponsive or ineffective. Using this approach, he was able to avoid narrow framing. When you define your choices too narrowly, you limit your thinking and can never think in binary terms.

Remember that the quality of your questions determines the quality of your life. The better the quality of the question, the better will be the result in the end. 

Let me give you a few examples to explain this concept a little better

• People ask limiting questions like: “Should I break with my partner or not” instead of framing a better question, which gives them more scope and the ability to make better decisions, like “What are the ways I can make the relationship better”? 
•  Let’s try another example to try to explainthis concept a little better. People ask limiting questions like “Should I buy a new car or not”, which restricts and limits their choices about how they can best spend or invest the families money. A better question, which does not preclude the option to buy a car, but opens up all sorts of better options, is “What is the best way I could spend some money to make both me and my family happier”?
•  Consider the average person sitting contemplating their week on a Sunday evening. Imagine how limiting asking a typical question like, “How am I going to get through tomorrow”, is? Imagine all the possibilities you open up for yourself, when you ask a far more empowering question like, “What can I get from my day”?

When you use this approach and you invest the time to frame better questions. You equip yourself to consider multiple choices at the same time. Yes it does take more time to frame better questions, but believe me the benefits, way outweigh the costs involved. 

I know this concept of thinking "AND" instead of "OR" can be very intimidating at first. Try it, experiment with it and you will be astounded at how many times, you can actually have both. Once you have developed your “AND” decision making muscle and learned the art of expanding your ability to frame any decision or rather to ask better quality questions. You will have access to a really powerful tool to help you achieve incredible levels of success.

Motivational Speakers

Mastering Marketing on the Internet

I am sure that you have always wanted to improve your ability to market your business using the internet. The traditional ways of marketing will not be successful on the internet. If you want to dominate your markets online, sell more products and cultivate a tribe of raving fans online, you need to uncover innovative ways of giving things away to your target market, which they really want, for free.

There has never been a better or easier forum available, for building a community, delivering value to your market place, announcing your presence, selling products all over the world and for creating a tribe of raving fans, like is offered right now, by all the wonderful tools offered on the internet. There are businesses out there, who literally make millions, in seconds after launching them on the internet. Your business can be no different if you use the tools the internet offers properly.

The challenge for most businesses is that the internet can seem confusing, overwhelming, a source of delays and has the potential to cause technical headaches. The truth is that it has never been easier for any business, no matter how big or small, to become an international force to be reckoned with. The new social media platforms and search engine optimisation offer anyone, who is willing to work a little, an incredible way of marketing their business. These new technologies have literally levelled the playing field. Anyone can now be found, if they box smart and follow a few simple principles.

You don’t need to be a technical GURU

Here comes the best part of all. You can become very successful, without acquiring the latest plugin for your website, or those fancy graphics you thought you needed or even that herd of disinterested followers you thought you needed on all those social media platforms. OK so, you must now be feeling really confused. Surely you need to be a techno genius to succeed on the internet. Yes the advice I am going to offer you in this article may be contrary to what you have heard or believed in the past. Yes the advice may be different, but it is what has helped me to build my speaking business into a force to be reckoned with, within a very short space of time.

Using the Frank Kern Process

Frank Kern is a very well-known marketing consultant based in the USA. This technique I want to share with you in this article, is one he uses to support his           $ 100 000 consulting clients to take their businesses to the next level. He refers to this technique as the “Results in Advance Timeline” You can get more information on Frank Kern, by visiting his website at frankkern.com. 

 Action Idea: Start using this technique, by first drawing a horizontal line across your page. Next put an “A” on one side and a “B” on the other end of the line.  

Making this technique work for you

The secret when using this technique is to always remember that anyone, who is conducting a search on the internet, for a product or service similar to yours, is doing so because they are not satisfied with the results they are currently enjoying. For example, if someone is searching a term like “Sales Training” it means that he feels his team of sales people, need some support to improve their ability to sell. The person searching a term like that is looking for someone to support them to acquire an expert team of sales professionals, who are proficient at positively influencing people, prospecting, qualifying prospects, handling objections and ultimately closing sales. 

Using the horizontal line you have drawn. As you know, the person conducting the search for “Sales Training” does not have what they want, namely a team of competent sales professionals, so they are currently at position “A” on the time line. He or she would ultimately want to move to position “B” on the timeline, where they have the competent team of sales professionals they want. 

Competent Team of Sales Professionals

The secret to make this technique really work for you is to remember that to move you prospective client from point “A” to point “B”, means that they must embark on a journey, with a number of milestones along the way. 

Supporting your customer to get from point “A” to “B”

Look at the journey your customer must travel and identify all the crucial milestones along the way. Once you have identified all them and figured out how to support your customers to achieve them, you will have a tool which will allow you to get you heaps of new satisfied customers and you will get to make a fortune to boot. You will become the go-to authority in your industry and you will be become known as the person, who delivers incredible value to all your customers.

Turning this simple concept into Money

To make this process work best, try to stick to four major milestones, to get your customers from point “A” to point “B”. Do not allow yourself to get hung up on little details, which would only serve to overwhelm the prospect. 

The four major milestones to get someone who is searching for “Sales training” from point “A” to point “B”, would be: 

• Point “A” - Establish where you are currently. What level of sales is each team member actually achieving or capable of achieving with their current skill set? This is not related to their sales targets, at all, but is rather a true reflection around what they can achieve. 
• Milestone 1 - Conduct a Sales Audit – This is a process for understanding what is causing poor sales performance. Explore your current sales processes to uncover your unique sales challenges. This information is then utilised to tailor make a sales training process, to help you and your team develop the ideal sales skills necessary, to optimise your sales team’s sales results and performance.
•  Milestone 2 - Improved Sales Results – What outcome do you want to achieve - Decide on a measurable outcome, which you want to achieve after the sales training process is over? 
• Milestone 3 - Build a Practical Sales training Process to achieve the desired Sales performance and Results. Design a practical sales training process and activity management system, to train your sales team to introduce a new sales success routine, into their lives, to help them achieve their sales targets.
•  Milestone 4 - Guide Sales Team to Adopt and apply new Sales Routine.  
• Point “B” - Achieve Desired Sales Results. Leadership team is guided to introduce measurement criterion to monitor sales activity and the on-going introduction and development of the new sales routines or sales success habit set.  

Once you have identified and clarified each of the four milestones, the next step is to abbreviate them and place them on the timeline like this:

Point “A” is where they currently are and point “B” is where they would ultimately like to be, after engaging someone to train their sales team. The four milestones, which have been identified, offer the fastest way of assisting them, to get from one point to the other. This understanding gives you access to one of the most powerful marketing tools ever created, namely your completed “Results in Advance Timeline”.

Using the Power of the Timeline

As you know, your prospects practically demand and need to be nurtured, helped and educated, before they will ever consider buying your product or service. 

Action Idea: Stop for a moment and try to look at things from their perspective. 

• They may have bought a similar product or service to the one you sell, in the past, where they may have had a bad experience and not enjoyed the results they wanted. 
• They are constantly bombarded with marketing messages from your competitors, who are offering them the moon
•  They have a challenge and are merely seeking an effective solution. They do not want a whole lot of unnecessary hype. 
• They are more likely than not, suffering from information overload, because of the overwhelming amount of information out there. 

Your poor prospect is desperately seeking the right information and best solution to satisfy their needs or solve a challenge, but instead of finding the information or solution they need. What they get instead, is a whole lot of overblown promises and sales hype. This is where the greatest opportunity presents itself to you.

To really use the power of the timeline, you must genuinely want to help your prospects, to solve their challenges or to better satisfy their needs, long before asking them for a dime. Remember the closer you bring your prospects to achieving their desired results, the more they will trust you and what you have to offer.

Making this work for you

Clearly define and understand the four major milestones you have outlined. Next create a simple, easy to read e Report (PDF document), downloadable audio, such as an MP3 or even better a link to a YouTube video, which outlines the specific steps the prospect must follow to achieve each milestone. Your e-Report, audio or video recordings are effectively your money magnets, because they will equip you with a set of really powerful tools, to attract the perfect customers to you. 

On your Website

I am sure that you know the importance of optimising your website, so that you can attract the right prospects, who are searching for the product or service that you sell. Assisting you to optimise your website for Search Engine Optimisation, is not the purpose of this article, so I will not go into any detail here, on how you can effectively do this. As you can imagine, the only way you can use the process I am going to describe to you now, is if you either have a search engine optimised website or if you are using Google ads, to direct the right prospects to your website. 

When a prospect visits your website looking for the solution you offer. You provide them with opt-in webpages, which offer each money magnet individually. In exchange for the prospects email address, they receive the individual e-Report, audio MP3 and they get to watch the short YouTube video, related to that single milestone or money magnet. Automate your website to send them the single money magnet they requested, immediately. There are a number of customer resource management services, which will work for you. I recommend OfficeAutoPilot.com, as a great way of doing this.

Now that you have the prospect as an email subscriber, send them the other three money magnets, every two days. This effectively keeps you in the forefront of their mind and helps them to see the incredible value you bring and how you can support them to solve a challenge or get a better solution, to satisfy their needs. 

This process works can also work really well, for any prospect, even if you get a lead from a source other than your website. After sending them your initial proposal, follow up with them, by sending them the four money magnets to them, two days apart. This keeps you in the forefront of their minds and shows your commitment towards supporting and being of service to them.

Finally putting the money in the bank

Prospects buy from people; they know, like and trust. There is no better way to get them to do all three, than by helping them to actually achieve the results they want. Because you have shown your prospects that you actually have the right solution for them, with your money magnets, you are way ahead of the pack. The only warning I want to offer here is, to be careful to always remain in a modality of service and giving. As soon as you try to become pushy, like every other sales person, you will be pushed right back into the herd. Always strive to use soft sales pitches, in conjunction with your money magnets. 

Using the sales training example I used before, do the following: Right after giving them one of the money magnets, which moves them closer to their desired result, you can say something like this to your prospect. 

“I hope that you enjoyed reading or listening to it, as much as I enjoyed making it for you. If these tips and guidelines on how to equip your sales team for success were helpful, then you would find real value in my two day sales training workshop, which is split over two months. You can find a lot of additional really useful and valuable information, by visiting my website at sales-training-africa.co.za”.  

  

As long as you are supporting your prospect to move closer to the result or outcomes they want. The trust they have in you, will keep growing and the desire they will have to buy your product or service will keep increasing too. As the process continues, where you continue to deliver the desired results, you will move each prospect from customers to raving fans.

Sales Training