Archive for the ‘Top Ten Lists’ Category

1. The Deal Decision Questions: What is the process for making a decision? What criteria have to be met for a decision to be made? What is the decision timeframe? And what can I do to make it happen faster?

2. The Nightmare Question: What keeps you up at night? Or what problems are you trying to solve?

3. The Time Machine Question: Where do you see yourself or your business in the next three years?

4. The Gold Mine Question: Where do you see your business’ next big “hit” coming from?

5. Level Playing Field Question: How do we stack up against our competitors?

6. Earning the Right Question: What do I need to do to earn the right to win the rest of your business?

7. The Ask for Business Questions: What stands between us and a mandate for your business? What specifically do you need us to demonstrate? How about 2nd Prize?

8. The Efficiency Finder Question: How do you currently manage this process, problem or project?

9. The Hero Question: What can I do to make you look good in front of your superiors?

10.The Alternative Close Question: If I can demonstrate X, Y & Z, can we agree that I am in the running to win your business?

To be a successful business owner, you have to posses certain qualities in order to maximize your performance and drive results in your business.  Owning a business is not for the weary and requires determination, focus and these top ten qualities to be successful. Read the rest of this entry »

So many times, a business owner can miss the warning signs that their business is heading towards trouble or worse, failure.   But these signs are obvious but often overlooked.

1. The owner doesn’t delegate and often handles too many processes themselves resulting in the business to rely heavily on the owner and no succession plan.
2. The company has excessive debt and not enough capital and cash to sustain.
3. Too much revenue on too few customers or on a single customer puts the company at great risk.
4. Operating systems, controls and reporting are inadequate to support the management team in making decisions.
5. Decisions are self motivated versus business based.
6. No written business or strategic plans for the company or departments to follow.
7. There is very high employee turnover, meaning staff is not staying with the company.
8. Too much growth that is not properly managed resulting in increased production costs.
9. Sales begin to slow and market share begins to deteriorate.

The business is assumed to be self sustaining and there is no effort to enhance or diversify the business.

Utilizing teleclasses and event marketing is a great way for business owners not only showcase their expertise but to attract more leads into their sales funnel.  Teleclasses, webinar, telesummits, teleconferences and teleseminar are ideal for delivering strong content and information to groups of people virtually therefore leveraging your time but in order to attract people to your teleclass, you first need to get the word out.  Here are the top 10 ways to promote your teleclass.

1.  On your website.  We live in a digital world and people do research and it is important for you to create a webpage on your website that promotes your event.  This page should be heavy in keywords and optimized for the search engines.  Same with the golden rule of websites, you will also include an opt in box so you can capture people’s contact information and they can join your list for future communications.

2.  Your ezine.  Your ezine is a great way to communicate with your list and since you already have a relationship with your list, you have a high chance of converting people to your teleclass is easy since they already know you.   This is also a place where you can make special offers and ask your list to refer your teleclass to their friends.

3. Your blog.  Post your teleclass and your event on your blog and offer an invitation to your readers and include a sign up link. 

4.  Through your affiliate network. Ask your affiliates to help promote your teleclass.  Even if this isn’t a paid event, if it is a great topic that their list would find value by attending and you have a good relationship with your affiliates, chances are, they will promote it anyway.  If it is a paid event, offer your affiliates a “thank you” commission.

5.  Issue a press release.  Submit a press release online by using one of the many PR directory sites.  I would recommend using a fee based site such as PRWeb.com to ensure that you press release is distributed and you have online visibility and to also send it to your local media – newspapers, TV and radio stations.

6.  Email Signature.  Every email you send out should have a customized email signature that promotes your most recent event, product or program.  This is an often under utilize marketing strategy that is known to be very effective.

7.  Article Marketing. Begin writing articles on the topic of your teleclass and begin submitting them to the various article directories a month or so before the live event.  In your resource box (the short author’s bio), include information about your teleclass and provide a link.

8.  Discussion Forums.  Participate in forums and networks that cater to your target audience and engage with the other members.  You can always invite them to your teleclass by simply posting the invite, or asking a question related to your teleclasss topic and asking people to supply answers that you plan on including in your teleclass.

9.  Social Networks.  Sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook have event pages for you to post your teleclass and send out invitations to your connections.   These sites give you full event pages that you include all the details and links to sign up.  You can also use twitter to tweet about your event to your network and ask your followers to RT to their network.

10.  Teleclass Announcement Lists.  There are a number of online teleclass announcement services where you can promote your teleclass:

Teleclass.com

Planet Teleclass

EventBrite

Craigs List

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1.Not developing a strong brand promise that is specific, consistent and true.

2.Not believing in your brand and designing a branding touchpoint strategy.

3.Relying on marketing and advertising alone to build a powerful, emotional brand.

4.Creating a brand identify that is too easily copied.

5.Building a brand on something expected , obvious and generic, like “great customer service”, or “one stop shop”

6.Commoditizing your brand by making it all about price and profits.

7.Not connecting emotionally with your customers.

8.Focusing on products instead of relationships and experiences.

9.Thinking of branding as an afterthought and not designing a business in the beginning around branding.

10.Not being consistent with messaging ,brand identity and brand positioning.