Owner: Sales, Marketing and Small Business Tips from a Serial Entrepreneur URL:http://salesconx.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:25:07 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: For more than eighteen years, Evan has been an instrumental figure in helping technology companies, startup, public and private, grow their businesses. Site statistics:Click here
Driving leads with a balanced portfolio 2008-03-04 09:00:00 There was a Linkedin question posted on the 29th of February – perhaps the whole leap year effect brought out the best out. The question asked, ‘What type of lead generation strategies for software industry do you recommend?’ Well, given that Linkedin is limited to 4,000 characters could only assume that the person asking the question was hoping for a single answer. I could only assume that the same person would ask a hedge fund manager ‘what type of investment strategies do you recommend’. Ironically, both answers are pretty similar – a balance portfolio. In marketing this means a combination of online marketing such as banner advertising and pay-per-click, event marketing such as tradeshows, seminars (online and offline), cold calling which including telemarketing, word-o Read more:Driving
Why Do We Keep Giving Away the Milk? 2008-02-28 14:03:00 Being in the sales and marketing sector it I am often asked for advice. This ranges from reviewing someones marketing plans, recommending PR strategies and more often leveraging my network introducing someone to a potential customer or vendor. I came across this blog yesterday which really struck a cord.Reprinted from the blog of Drew McLellan () “I was at lunch with a peer and friend the other day, telling her a story about how a mutual acquaintance had called me out of the blue to ask for some marketing counsel, which of course I gave her. My lunch companion said, "I hope you charged her." Gulp. I've been in the business for 20+ years. Owned my own agency for almost 13. I know better. But I still give away too much milk. And then I get frustrated when no one wants to buy the cow. Read more:Giving
Supplementing Your Income 2008-02-19 08:50:00 At a local conference I got into a discussion with a mortgage broker dealing in commercial real estate. He confided in me that he hasn’t been selling much lately and was looking to supplement his income while still working in the real estate market. I am hearing this question more and more often these days. And, it is a common problem not limited to a downturn in the economy. No matter how high one climbs on the workplace ladder, folks are regularly looking for additional or supplemental income sources. It could be the CEO of a large company that sits on the board of directors of other companies, to the administrative assistant who works on the weekends in a retail store. Man (and woman’s) inability to satiate material desires has created a secondary income market – not related to Read more:Income
The top ten low-cost and low-risk ways to drive new clients for your business 2008-02-11 08:59:00 All businesses share the challenge of finding new business. We recently conducted a survey of 700 small businesses. 43 % of them needed to add over 10 new clients a year. It should come as no surprise that $90 billion is being spent by businesses in the U.S. to grow (American Marketing Association). $20 billion is being spent in online marketing alone. The common marketing portfolio for a company includes advertising (online and offline), public relations, event marketing (tradeshows), client marketing (referrals) and telemarketing (cold calling). An effective marketing strategy will employ multiple initiatives under these areas targeting their customer/prospect segments. Each of these items is important (in different varying levels) to achieve marketing results. But, is there a wa Read more:drive
How Could Social Media Have a Positive Affect on Your Business? 2008-02-04 13:59:00 We are all hearing about the potential of social media for business. I am interested to learn what others find beneficial about the promise of social media. Social
media ranges from bloggers, micro bloggers (things like twitter), social networking and professional networking. Amidst the $20 billion spent on online marketing, social media has emerged as a new (and more importantly less expensive) alternative to driving leads for your business. Word of mouth has always (at least historically) been a great way to drive new business. In my last position driving marketing for an Internet Security Company generating $120 million in revenue, around 7% of our business was client referral business (happy customers referring us to other customers). We regularly tried to increase that amount th Read more:Positive
, Affect
, Business
, Social Media
Fishing for leads 2008-01-30 15:12:00 I was recently asked a great question at a business networking event: When planning your marketing efforts, should you cast a wide net to find lots of leads, or a narrow net to find highly qualified leads? Oddly enough, I was (and the operative word is ‘was’) a huge proponent of “spray and pray” marketing. This strategy called for casting as wide a net as possible to catch many fish and then sift thru the fish throwing away most of the trash until you find the “good” lead. The strategy has played out well for the past 20 years – though the method by which we caught fish has certainly evolved. At the beginning of my career, we used cold calling for almost all marketing initiatives. Sprinkled in were direct mail pieces (anyone remember those) that helped pave t Read more:Fishing
How can social networking space be leveraged to create opportunities for Sales? 2008-01-17 13:58:00 I was just asked on LinkedIn, "How can social networking
space be leveraged to create
opportunities for Sales
?"It is important to bifurcate (yes Maggie I used the word bifurcate) social networking between both those words “social” and “networking”. The social aspect of social networking is the ‘fun’ element. It is the keeping in touch with past colleagues, college friends and associates. It’s helping out one of your past coworkers who is looking for job and needing some added help in making introductions. When my high school was having a reunion (not saying how many years) we used social networking to track and find almost everyone in the class.What we are seeing in social networks is that ones’ “network” is getting too large so folks are creating groups of like-minde
Driving new business – the small business challenge 2008-01-14 15:22:00 Growing a business has its obvious challenges. The owner(s), usually with limited allotment of initial resources, must battle the clock in creating a meaningful strategy to steal market share from larger competitors. A few pivotal client relationships can make or break the entire business. In many ways, these challenges have not changed over time--but in 2008, there are also new ways to compete. To better understand the issues facing small businesses today we surveyed close to 500 small businesses nationwide from a wide variety of industries, with the objective of understanding the following about owners of small businesses:[1] • How they value new client relationships • How they approach lead generation • How they utilize the Internet’s networking features New cli Read more:Driving
Salesconx Launch Party at the Social Bar 2007-11-09 08:39:00 From my speech last night at the launch party.Good evening everybody. My name is Evan Sohn and I want to thank you all for coming out tonight to celebrate the launch of Salesconx. So how many folks here have closed business in the past 90 days? So you all found and sold to the right guy. Did u know that over $90 billion is spent by companies trying to find the right guy? Banner ads, click thru campaigns, email marketing, telemarketing, appointment setting are just some of the ways that companies are spending to find the right guy. There has been a lot of hype around social networking and how it could help with lead generation. I belong to a number of social networs. They make it real easy to add contacts and grow my social network. At least once a month I get a request fro Read more:Social
, Launch
, Party
My first posting 2007-08-30 08:59:00 I have always been an early adopter of new technologies - back in 1993 I had one of the first wireless email systems using the Ardis network, I was one of the first developers on the Apple Newtown, I was in CRM when it was still called sales automation, I was in WiFi when it was called 802.11 and few other similar examples. I remember using Gofer on the my PC to "surf" the Internet in its early days and heck I even lost a lot of money investing in Lycos. I was always ambivalent about THE BLOG but, I decided that as part of the launch of my latest company, Salesconx, I would keep a BLOG as means of both communicating to our users and prospects but also, in the hopes of leveraging your experiences as we develop this new marketplace.What is Salesconx?Salesconx (pronounced 'sales-con-ex') is
The American Idol Philosophy of Selling 2008-03-17 08:22:00 I don’t know about your home, but my house is an American
Idol home. I am not alone as American Idol is now the most valuable TV format in the world with an estimated value in excess of $2.5 billion. As we are in the midst of American Idol mania I was thinking about the lessons learned from seeing talented performers compete week after week. What makes an American Idol champion? What makes a winning American Idol performance? All things being equal how does one contestant rise above the others? Given that it isn’t always about the one who has the best voice - what makes an American Idol? The biggest reality of this reality show is the contestants need to sell themselves week after week to the American public. These 12 contestants (now down to 11) are therefore thrust into being top sal Read more:Philosophy
The Top 5 (Classy) Ways to Earn Extra Money on the Internet 2008-03-27 08:26:00 As a professional (and of course I take liberty when using that term) how could I leverage the Internet
and the billions being transacted on the Internet to make some extra money. I am not about to start selling my kids clothes on eBay nor am I going to start selling online courses to my friends and family. Clearly, I missed out on the opportunity to buy and park domains names – just imagine how much has been made by those smart individuals. If I was more technical I would have set up an offshore development company a few years ago and rode that train – but I didn’t. So what could a regular guy like me do to capitalize on the Internet’s money making opportunities – without being subject to federal investigation by Elliot Spitzer someone else? Here are my top 5 (classy) ways to e Read more:Classy
, Extra
, Money
The Top 5 (Classy) Ways to Earn Extra Money on the Internet 2008-03-26 12:57:00 As a professional (and of course I take liberty when using that term) how could I leverage the Internet
and the billions being transacted on the Internet to make some extra money. I am not about to start selling my kids clothes on eBay nor am I going to start selling online courses to my friends and family. Clearly, I missed out on the opportunity to buy and park domains names – just imagine how much has been made by those smart individuals. If I was more technical I would have set up an offshore development company a few years ago and rode that train – but I didn’t. So what could a regular guy like me do to capitalize on the Internet’s money making opportunities – without being subject to federal investigation by Elliot Spitzer someone else? Here are my top 5 (classy) ways to Read more:Classy
, Extra
, Money
Does Salesconx Really Work? 2008-04-01 15:50:00 Since launching this past fall, many of my former sales and marketing colleagues have asked me ‘does Salesconx really work?’ Despite my conviction the ability to prove my theory of Salesconx was a bit limited. Meet Nat Silverman. Nat is a telecommunications sales rep in NYC selling for nearly 20 years. Though Nat is typically limited to selling a single product line (a T1 line or telco equipment) Nat has a wealth of experience in telecommunications and general IT services. “I realized that there were better opportunities for me to make money by leveraging my network,” Silverman said. “I am always trying to play the role of business consultant to my clients, advising them on services outside my company’s service portfolio.” Silverman did what ever good sales person is
Lessons from the First Salesman – The Serpent 2008-04-08 12:46:00 The serpent is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made,” Genesis 3:1. The serpent is indeed the original salesman. It is no wonder that when being derogatory about a person’s characteristics one might say that they are slippery like “snake oil”. But (for our purposes) the serpent must have been one heck of salesman. God, as the story in the bible goes, created for Adam and Eve the ultimate in luxury. Think of the Ritz Hotel, Naples Florida with all expenses paid. Everything, from food to worldly pleasures was merely a touch a way. There was but one rule – do not eat from the forbidden fruit. So let’s review the selling environment for the serpent; no compellin Read more:Lessons
, First
LinkedIn Lion Taps Salesconx to Monetize Network 2008-04-14 13:28:00 NEW YORK- April 14, 2008--Salesconx.com, the online business referral marketplace today announced that Moshe Weiss, a master rainmaker and leading networker with over 16,000 direct business connections, has joined the Saleconx Partnership Program to monetize his network. Salesconx helps businesses drive more revenue by providing a platform for qualified lead and deal generation by leveraging the 17 million sales professionals in the United States. The member base currently consists of 1,800+ frontline experts across numerous industries and disciplines including finance, banking, real estate and business services. These members are compensated for introducing qualified decision makers in their individual networks to other Salesconx members seeking these connections. "Salesconx is a Read more:LinkedIn
, Monetize
Brainstorm Host Monetizes contacts using Salesconx 2008-04-14 12:16:00 I was interviewed recently by the host of Brainstorm
(www.brainstormbusinesspodcast.com) Penny Haynes, who also happens to be a successful member of Salesconx.com. Listen here: Penny is actually the founder of Online Communities Magazine (). Thanks Penny.
The New Networker 2008-04-23 09:53:00 Social and professional networking has really taken the Internet by storm. LinkedIn, the largest of the US professional networks, has more than 20 million professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. There are many smaller professional networks such as BizNik, FastPitch networking and Xing just to name a few. Recruiters and corporate recruiters were the first ones to jump on the professional networking bandwagon. Examine the top “connected” folks on these sites and you will still find an overwhelming number of them in the recruiting field. And it is no wonder, before the days of business networking - the recruiters always carried the largest rolodexes. Online networking created a new platform for recruiters to tap not only the folks in their network, but also
The First 10 (Customers) 2008-05-08 11:39:00 Your research is completed. Your development is done. Your blood, sweat, and tears has finally come to its zenith. Your forecasts for revenues are in line with your expense projections. Your hot-off-presses business cards are printed and your website is going ‘live’. All that’s left is to finally prove to the world (and of course all the naysayers) that your idea for a new business was right on the mark. We can talk about writing press releases, taking out ads and sending out mailers. But, think about it - in tangible terms, how are you going to get those first ten customers? Your first few customers are so critical to your success because they: Legitimize your offering, demonstrating that yes, there is indeed a market for your products and services (“dogs eating t Read more:First
Getting Your Foot in the Door 2008-06-02 10:22:00 You have a great product or service to sell. You know the pitch back and forth and are prepared to handle any objections made by the prospect. All you need now is a prospect. Knowing full well that the right person isn’t going to pick up the phone and call us – how do you get in front of the right people?We all make cold calls or, in the web 2.0 vernacular, send out blind emails (not spam).
Recession Selling – making the best out of the worst (or the very bad) 2008-07-07 16:42:00 It is no surprise that trying to sell in a tough market is one heck of a challenge. Think of the opposite – just how easy it was to sell when everything was going great. Companies buy to either (a) drive revenue or (b) cut costs. Y2K, Sarbanes Oxley, SEC and HIPPA compliance are long gone (unless you are one of the lucky ones) so forcing a company to spend money to get into compliance isn Read more:making
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