‘I’m told I should create a niche.  By narrowing down my potential customers won’t that reduce my opportunities?'  Sound familiar?  Here’s a really good example: We’ve just spent the last 3 months doing some fairly major work on our house.  I say ‘we’, I should really say my husband, Geoff! Geoff was beginning to run out of steam and wanted to get the job finished so we enlisted the help of a friend.  It turned out that this friend has hidden talents.  He spent many years in Switzerland and Germany on restoration projects.  He’s an interior designer and extremely creative. 

The length of the sales cycle depends on the products or services you sell.  If you are selling a product that your customer is quite familiar with the sales cycle can be quite short.  But for many of us, especially where we are providing a service, it can take months before the decision to buy is made. The time from initial meeting to purchase could be 3, 6 or even 12 months or more.  There will be a variety for reasons for this from the timing not being right to your prospect wanting to get to know you and be confident that

Why should you consider video for websites? Amatis Video specialise in helping businesses create video for websites as a marketing tool and using it to promote their business.  David’s background is making documentaries and the presentation that he gave at Guildford’s 4Networking meeting clearly demonstrated his skills and professionalism. In his 15 minutes presentation he shot a promotional video for 4Networking, explaining what he was doing and why he was doing it as he went along.  He’d primed a few interviewees beforehand (you might recognise one of them!).  The questions he’d prepared were such that he would gain the content that

S P I N - a helpful tool to get your marketing words down in double quick time! What a great meeting of Fabulous Women (& Marvellous Men) we had at The Bear in Oxshott today. I felt very privileged to share one of the tools that I use to help write marketing communications clearly and succinctly. It’s called S P I N and goes like this: S is for Situation o Here we explain the current situation that our prospects find themselves in P is for Problem o We then explain the problems that they are experiencing I is for Implication

Sometimes people need to sample your work before they can either understand how you might be able to help them or feel confident enough to engage you. What can you give that will provide that experience and take your prospects to the next stage, which might be a meeting to discuss how you could work with them, followed up with a proposal? This month, to give people a chance to sample my work, I’ve been offering a free website marketing audit whenever I introduce myself at networking events.  This has already led to a few enquiries and discussions about other marketing

I had the very good fortune to attend a webinar hosted by Veronica Pullen of Word of Mouth Local with her guest, Bob Burg.  I read Bob’s book The Go-Giver quite a few years ago and the essence of adding value to other people has remained with me. The book is a business parable about a young, enthusiastic salesman called Joe.  He’s a real Go-Getter, but the harder he works the further away he feels to achieving his goals.  His mentor introduces him to 5 Go-Givers and the 5 Laws of Stratospheric Success that teach Joe to become

I was introduced to a great time saving App by a networking friend, Liz Walker of Inside Out.  It's called Cardmunch.  Tip No. 6 in my blog 'Network strategically for maximum return on investment' is about following up and connecting with your new contacts on Linked In. Once the App's downloaded, Cardmunch is like having your very own Virtual Assistant.  All you have to do is take a photo with your mobile of the business cards you collect and very soon it's returned with a connection to LinkedIn, an email ready to say 'Great to meet you' and if you want to, you

A lot of precious time and hard earned money is spent on networking, which is why networking should be approached strategically and integrate with the rest of your marketing activities. It takes time, months even years, to build strong relationships.  Getting to know business acquaintances that really understand you and your business, and you theirs, only comes with repeated meetings and discussions.  Only once these relationships have been built are you likely to start to receive referrals and feel confident enough to make referrals.  Networking is a long term marketing strategy; a very powerful one not to be ignored. Networking

Your Press Release is going to be sent to journalists who receive many 100s each day so it must catch their eye and grab their attention. A well written Press Release will include the following elements: • Your story must be current or about an imminent event • Keep it short and simple without using jargon or technical terms • Your story must be newsworthy and relevant to the readership of the newspaper or magazine • Human interest, a local angle or surprise situations are popular.  As is a bit of controversy or celebrity name dropping!  But make sure you have your facts right

A business that understands their customers’ needs and then develops products and services to satisfy those needs will reap the rewards. A survey can be used to gain an insight into many areas e.g. product development, event & seminar themes, customer satisfaction, academic research.  Informed decisions can be made from information gained. You may even discover a new way of positioning your product or service, which is attractive to your prospects and gives you an advantage over your competitors. Here are my top tips for writing a survey: 1.  What’s your objective: a. Be clear about why you are conducting the survey.