This blog includes posts on lead generation, eMarketing, Web Marketing, SEO and other leading edge marketing techniques.
-Alan Blume
All posts with the tag 'SOHO'
Sell More & Work Less: Web Selling Techniques Everyone Should Use – Now Available
Posted on January 2nd, 2012 by Alan Blume
Sell More & Work Less - Now at Amazon
The second book is finally complete and available on Amazon. Well – at least the paper based version is available with the Kindle version to follow in the next few weeks. This book was written and published faster than my first book, Your Virtual Success, leveraging some of the new web publishing techniques now available to authors.
Sell More & Work Less is a web selling tips book revolving around my 4-Phase Sales Process which helps business professionals quickly learn and apply many new web sales tips and techniques to improve their sales effectiveness. Simply said, allowing them to sell more and work less. The 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process facilitates the transition to a web based sales model and the greater profit potential, improved methods of selling and more flexible business and personal lifestyle this affords many salespeople and businesses, aspiring entrepreneurs and existing sole proprietors. Readers can replicate the 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process to create their own tailored sales process using the techniques explained in this web selling tips and techniques book. I was fortunate to be assisted by three “in the trenches” coauthors, Mike Lauducci, John Scranton and Andrew Blume in the writing of this web selling tips book.
Sell More & Work Less is now available on Amazon, the Kindle version is expected later in January. http://www.amazon.com/Sell-More-Work-Less-Techniques/dp/ …
For B2B Web Marketing go to www.StartMarketingTech. For Insurance Agency Marketing go to www.StartUpSelling.com.
Office Buildings Are Obsolete – Big Box Stores Too?
Posted on February 5th, 2011 by Alan Blume
Internet Marketing
Last year I wrote a blog stating that office buildings are obsolete, and this year I’m thinking the same conjecture might also apply to big box stores. I recently noticed a Yahoo post entitled, The Coming Collapse of Commercial Real Estate is Already Here, by Stacy Curtin. Stacy aptly notes that BestBuy and Target missed their expected earnings targets, and as of this writing, Wal-Mart has seen 6 consecutive quarters of negative same store sales. Further, this happened to BestBuy even though a key competitor, CircuitCity, had moved into bankruptcy. Though this has occurred in a tough economy, many of their online competitors have seen significantly better results.
Stacy’s article states that more people are buying, they are just buying online. This seems true globally and anecdotally. About a year ago, I tried to purchase a receiver from BestBuy, only a couple of miles from my home. Unfortunately the receiver was out of stock. In fact all the receivers that might have been of interest to me were out of stock. A couple of years ago, I would have driven across the street to the now defunct CircuitCity (speaking of brick and mortar retail challenges). Instead, I drove home, went online to Amazon and purchased a better receiver for less money, which was delivered a day later. Obviously, I’m not alone. Many of my friends and colleagues now make routine purchases from Amazon as progressively more consumers become comfortable with online searching and shopping.
My CPA buys all his books on his Kindle, as do I, a faster, easier and more cost effective alternative to the brick and mortar bookstore. The challenges for BestBuy, Target, Wal-Mart, Blockbuster and Barnes & Noble are obvious, perhaps most evident by the huge electronic book display in the premium retail location at the front of the Barnes & Noble stores. B&N appears to be working hard to transition to a Kindle type operation with their new Nook. Better late than never, or simply too late for the date? Only time will tell, though their extensive brick and mortar costs may result in too much ballast for them to successfully navigate from retail to e-tail.
But retail isn’t alone in the commercial real estate challenge. Traditional office buildings will face a virtual workforce shift, as progressive companies opt for less costly and more efficient work from home staffing. This is happening with small virtual companies like StartUpSelling, Inc. and giants like IBM. Working virtually has amazing advantages, from resolving the commute related issue with today’s snow storm in Boston, to using highly cost effective tools like Skype which allows multistate, multiparty video conferencing for pennies a day.
Do these changes spell the imminent destruction and removal of office buildings and big box retail? I think this is too strong a statement. There will likely be a need for many types of retail establishment, from groceries to lumber, from household items to convenience items. And there will be office based businesses that require some or perhaps many employees to congregate. That said, the changes to brick and mortar retail and offices are upon us, gaining speed every day, as the convenience and cost efficacy of virtual business and e-tail offers a more convenient path for the rapidly increasing, interconnected internet world.
Top 5 Tips When Creating A Virtual Business
Posted on February 1st, 2011 by Alan Blume
Here's to "Your Virtual Success"!
Perhaps you’re considering creating a business or expanding a current business. As with many businesses, investing in inventory, product development or warehouse space might seem requisite. And perhaps this appears to be a reasonable or even logical approach, borrowing the famous quote from Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will come.” After all, your simple business plan projects profits after only a modest startup period. My advice is to think about this again. When creating a new business, it’s highly advantageous to operate in a way that is both conducive to a flexible lifestyle while mitigating downside risk, including ramp up time or significant upfront investment.
Then again, you might be thinking that you can alleviate the risk by securing a bank loan, tapping into your home equity or even attracting venture capital. My advice, once again, is to think about another path, preferably one revolving around the golden rules above. Yes, there are a select few who can beat the traditional small business odds which are often estimated at 5 to 1, where only 20% of new businesses succeeded in the first 3 years. Venture capital odds are surely the worst, where many experts maintain the odds that you will succeed (find VC funding, maintain control of your company and enjoy a positive liquidation event) are about 5,000 to 1. How difficult are these odds? At roughly 5,000 to 1, you would odds comparable to getting struck by lightning.
Bootstrapping your virtual business should be much easier than funding a traditional brick and mortar business. Before opening a traditional storefront, or investing in a physical office, ask yourself if you can work from a home office, or if you can adjust your operations to accommodate a virtual business model. Instead of getting on a plane or train, are you sure a “face to face” Skype conference call wouldn’t suffice? At a cost of about $5 per month, you can simultaneously video conference with multiple people, regardless of their location. Instead of investing up front in capital equipment, can your new business secure orders in advance, or even deposits in advance of delivery?
- A short path to the money (limited ramp-up or development time)
- No upfront capital
- Customer deposits in advance of delivery
- Contractor based assistance for delivery
- Niche marketing opportunity (it’s much easier to target a vertical than a horizontal)
When thinking about your next venture, think about the Top 5 virtual business startup tips and if possible, find a virtual business model that leverages these for your new or existing business. Try to follow some or all of these.
TKO – Client Always Wins – Virtual or Not
Posted on February 11th, 2010 by Alan Blume
I recently ran into a dispute with a vendor I use. I use the term vendor in this case, because during the dispute my perspective about them changed from a partner to a vendor. I had signed a one year agreement with them at price point A, and when I went to reorder, they asked for a new price higher then price point A. I was working with a new sales person; my original sales person had departed for parts unknown. The new sales guy towed the company line, leveraged all the standard catch phrases like undervalued, new pricing parameters, top down management directive. These probably made perfect sense to him but I thought I signed a one year agreement. Technically – he said, I didn’t have a one year contract – reorders weren’t actually part of the agreement. Hmmm… in a way, he was going to win this dispute. After all, I wasn’t likely to sue his firm. But what he and many others don’t realize is that you can’t win an argument with a customer on a technicality (I would simply say you can’t win any argument with a customer – you lose as soon as you start arguing).
I asked to speak to his manager – was initially told that wasn’t necessary. In today’s virtual world, however, shielding management doesn’t work if a customer is really ticked off. So, I simply went to LinkedIn, searched for senior managers at the firm, and reached out to them. To their credit, they responded promptly, and honored the intent of my agreement. If things continue on a positive path, they might regain my complete trust and loyalty. If there is any hiccup of any type, I’ll move my business right away. In this virtual world, if you are a customer service person, a sales representative or simply a customer, you should always assume that the senior most management of your company or almost any company is just one or two degrees away – easy to contact from a virtual and pragmatic perspective.
How to “Insure” the Success of New Salespeople
Posted on January 8th, 2010 by Alan Blume
A month ago I hired a sales contractor who we’ll call “Joe”. Joe has three years of sales experience in business insurance, but found the 60 hour work weeks and mundane nuances of insurance to be less than 100% fulfilling. He sought a better balance for his working schedule, greater income opportunities and the opportunity to create his own business. Most organizations fail to create a winning game plan for new hires. Too often I hear of companies that hire two new salespeople, “put them in a room and throw the Yellow Pages at them” to borrow a quote from a recent client of mine.
On Joe’s first day, we created a target prospect list, set up an eMarketing campaign to 3,000 companies, created a custom call script, set up a web seminar on a topic of interest (Integrated Marketing for Insurance Agencies) and scheduled an emailing for the next day. On day two, the emailing was sent and Joe was already responding to inquiries, calling on click through and web seminar respondents. On day three, Joe has already set up web meetings with prospects (Joe set up 4 meetings in his first week). By the end of week #2, Joe had closed his first client, and then closed another one week later.
Granted, there are longer sales cycle solutions than lead generation and marketing services engagements, but I’ve seen this Virtual Sales and Marketing approach (the 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process) work with essentially every B2B business product, service or solution. So when you hire a new sales agent, contract or employee, make sure you have a virtual game plan and start them off with some well rehearsed plays. If you get an early lead – you’ll win the game.
For more information read Your Virtual Success goto www.startupselling.com.
Ring in the New Year with a good business model – and reap the profits
Posted on January 2nd, 2010 by Alan Blume
Many business owners choose or create flawed small business models which are inherently more difficult to run profitably. As an adopter of a completely virtual and highly profitable model over the past 6 years, I have leveraged a few key fundamentals which have made it dramatically easier to find a consistent path to profitability:
• Find a short path to the money – whenever possible avoid businesses with a long lead time and significant investment to achieve profits. If your business model requires this, consider a different or complimentary business.
• Insist on client deposits – we never begin a project without a deposit and my cash flow is excellent. Once a client has paid a deposit – they become a partner – not just a client.
• Work the virtual business model – No office space, employees (use contractors), no servers, no expenses, no travel, no utilities – essentially no costs – translate to a much easier and faster path to profits.
• Utilize outsource contractors instead of employees – with so many qualified contractors available today, why invest in a large office and hire employees. Work from your home office and contract with 10, 15 or more talented independent contractors – if you create the correct virtual infrastructure – you can often accomplish more with fewer people and far lower costs. And we never have workers sitting on the bench.
• Invest in Cloud Computing solutions, not server based solutions – in a recent web seminar on behalf of one of our clients we registered over 350 senior executives which resulted in 235 attendees. Registration is automatic, tracking is automatic, reminders are automatic, web seminar reports take minutes, our solution even allows us to run the session redundantly in case of internet interruption. Total cost for unlimited meetings and web seminars is less than $20 a week. And since it is an SaaS application, our administrative and infrastructure overhead is zero.
My lead generation and marketing services company eschews traditional brick and mortar trappings, leverages some of the best contractors available in North America and enjoyed a record year in the challenging 2009 economy. Your Virtual Success, due out in April 2010 (Career Press) reviews these key principals. If you would like more information on my virtual business model, go to www.alanblume.com or www.startupselling.com.
The Knack or virtual knack to create a successful business
Posted on November 5th, 2009 by Alan Blume
Do you have the knack to create a virtual business? If you’re thinking of starting up a virtual business, or have an emerging business that can benefit from the virtual model, I’d recommend you read The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham. The Knack offers a common sense approach to entrepreneurship and truly embraces a clear understanding of the common pitfalls, erroneous impressions, and unrealistic perspectives that can often impede emerging businesses. In some regards this can be summed up as unjustified optimism that plagues most startups. The Knack addresses issues like cash flow planning, margins, expenses (and creeping expenses) and discounts in a simple and straightforward manner which should be of help to any small or emerging business.
Of course, if your business is virtual, or you apply my virtual model to your current business, you’ll inherently keep expenses low and improve efficiency. This improves the odds for almost any emerging or small business, though you still want to have the knack for keeping cash flow, margins, expenses and discounts in check. Check out The Knack – it’s a good read…
Going Postal
Posted on September 14th, 2009 by Alan Blume
It seems pretty strange that the U.S. government still delivers mail six days a week. After all, the postal service has been running at a deficit for years, in some cases, multibillion dollar deficits. At the moment, it does seem reasonable to have mail delivery services a few days a week. After all, we still get some bills and checks in the mail, though the trend is clearly moving to on-line banking and direct deposit. You may receive the occasional important letter or notification, and a favorite catalog from time to time. To accomplish this, according the United States Postal Service Web site (www.usps.com), these items are delivered by, “685,000 career employees and 101,000 non-career staff, making it the second-largest employer in the United States (behind Wal-Mart). The Postal Service employs more workers on U.S. soil than General Motors, Ford and Chrysler combined.” The site goes on further to say, “The USPS operates the largest fleet of commercial vehicles in the country—some 212,000 vans and trucks.” That’s a lot of vehicles, a lot of gas and a huge expense! Imagine the energy savings if we stopped sending junk mail, encouraged opt in email, cut down on the USPS delivery days, and encouraged electronic signatures for legal documents. Imagine the post office needing 100,000 or even 150,000 fewer vehicles! But even this logic is faulty. It won’t be long before most traditional catalogs are replaced by cheaper, faster, better on-line versions. It won’t be long before people stop writing hand written letters and notes. When was the last time your twelve year old wrote a letter and mailed it to a friend? The last time my 20-year-old daughter wrote a letter was six years ago when she was in summer camp and didn’t have access to a computer. My 33 year old nephew receives all his bills on-line, and is still using the same book of traditional bank checks received in his first order. It won’t be long before traditional mail is almost completely supplanted by email, eBilling, Instant Messaging and digital documents. And all of these events will move us into a progressively more pervasive on-line existence and a more environmentally friendly communication and distribution system. Don’t go postal, go virtual.