Small Business Marketing Show

Hey, Hey...we just hit Episode 50! This week on the Small Business Marketing Show we're continuing our theme of focused strategy and marketing. One of the best ways to accelerate your client attraction is to narrow your focus to a specific niche market (group of people). On this episode I interview Jarom Adair of SoloPreneur Marketing...Jarom is an expert at helping business owners find and focus on a niche market. He works exclusively with solo professionals and business owners and walks them through the process he shares on the interview. To learn more about Jarom and connect with him  and get the PDF Jarom mentioned on the podcast go to SoloPreneurMarketing.com  

In this episode of the Small Business Marketing Show I talk with Michael Zipursky of Business Consulting Buzz about standing out in a crowded and noisy market. Michael is an expert at helping consultants and professionals choose a specialization and strategically position themselves to attract better clients and higher fees. In this interview Michael shares: Why you should specialize. How to choose the best specialty given all the options. The key advantages specialists have over generalists and why generalists usually make less money. The counter-intuitive truth that keeps most people from specializing. Learn more about Michael at Business Consulting Buzz...  

Positive thinking and positive marketing are partners. Positive thinking set you up for action...and all positive marketing comes from action. And, negative thinking...belief that "it won't work for me", kills marketing before it ever gets out the door. In fact, I may have to revise my book 7 Deadly Marketing Sins That Will Kill Your Business and add disbelief as #8... It's that big. I've seen it halt business owners in their tracks...good ones too. And there's but one way to overcome it... Work on the mind. Last week I interviewed Jeanna Gabellini, co-author of Life Lessons for Mastering the Law of Attraction: 7 Essential Ingredients for Living a Prosperous Life with Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Eva Gregory. Jeanna's an expert at helping business owners up their mental game. Listen to the interview online: And Jeanna's hosting a live encore webinar that you'll want to check out here. Enjoy!

I've written before about the importance of newsletters in your marketing. In fact, if you said to me today "Steve, you've got to choose one and only one marketing method to use from today forward." I'd choose the printed newsletter. Hands down. Why? It allows me to entertain while I sell. It creates consistency and consistency builds trust. It lets me show up differently than almost every competitor (I don't get many printed newsletters anymore…do you?). Most importantly, it gives me an excuse to stay in front of every prospect and client, every month. Last week I sat down with the man known as The Newsletter Guru…Mr. Jim Palmer. Jim is an expert at the use of newsletters in your marketing. In this interview he shares his top tips for creating a newsletter that people actually want to read. (Believe it or not that's important ;-) If you have a newsletter listen to the interview today. If you don't have a newsletter yet…you need this like…yesterday! Enjoy! Steve

Get your mind out of the gutter… We're talking about the noun not the verb today. I had no idea, but apparently men and women approach business networking differently. Who knew? Yes it seems we men simply want to get to the point (i.e. the money). And the ladies want a relationship (among other things). Now, lest you think I'm simply making up these outrageous theorems I spoke with a very smart lady named Hazel Walker who, along with a couple of gents, figured all of this out and wrote it down in an excellent book titled… Business Networking and Sex: It's not what you think Oh…and those gents she worked with: Dr. Ivan Misner (founder of BNI) and Frank DeRafelle, Jr. The trio surveyed 12,000 business people to discover their perceptions about networking. The results are fascinating…and guaranteed to help improve your (business) results with members of the opposite sex. Now, about that conversation I had with Ms. Walker…I recorded the whole thing. In precisely 44-minutes and 26-seconds she tells all. Steve PS - Get the book…read the book. It's both funny and profitable. And connect with Hazel Walker at HazelWalker.com (be sure to grab her e-book 26 Strategies for Increased Referrals).

In this episode of the Small Business Marketing Show content marketing and SEO expert Tom Treanor shares: Exactly how to get started in content marketing What you SHOULD do and what to avoid Why you'd better be thinking about your content strategy now The importance of content for a local business If you have a website, you need to listen to this interview. And be sure to listen all the way to the end...Tom's got something free for you! Connect with Tom at Right Mix Marketing  

Want to bond with clients and prospects quickly? Video is just the thing for you. Of all the marketing mediums it's the closest thing to "face-to-face"...without being, well...you know. And that's the real power in video. Never mind that prospect's don't read much...they'd rather sit back and watch, than read. Never mind that Google loves video and often give your videos a preferential nod in the search results. Never mind that video proves again and again an asset in selling in advance. Video is where it's at...and where your marketing should be going. But you've got to do it in an authentic way...and I know just the guy to help. This week on the Small Business Marketing Show, I interview the "Sherlock Holmes of Video Marketing", Mr. Steve Washer. Steve shares some great tips on how to start out with video marketing and what key's to think about as you design your videos. AND...he's invited you to the Video Superhero Summit where he'll be presenting on May 17th. To find out more about Steve Washer and grab his fantastic "Fast Start Video Marketing Kit" (it's free) go to brainyvideo.com Steve's got a TON of great video information on his site...check it out.

On this episode of the Small Business Marketing Show I interview the #1 Marketing Expert to the home remodeling industry - Kyle Hunt. In the interview Kyle shared a ton of great information including: The single most profitable decision he ever made in business The key metrics you should be tracking in your marketing How to use marketing to differentiate your business and win more contracts Simple ways to automate your marketing How to get your clients to frame your marketing pieces and put it on the wall! To learn more about Kyle go to remodelyourmarketing.com.

In this episode of the Small Business Marketing Show I talk money strategies with my friend and client John Curry. John's a financial advisor who specializes in working with business owners to plan (and fund) business exit strategies and succession plans. As I learned in my first business...you need to know how you're going to get out (and John explains there are only 3 ways) before you get in. If you're already in business and haven't figured out how to get out with the cash, you need to listen to this interview...

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Matthew Kimberley (he wrote How to Get A Grip,the last self-help book you'll ever need) …and we flipped on the recorder. (Well "sit down" is a relative term…he's in Malta…I'm in Florida…but we talked) Matthew is super sharp when it comes to 1-on-1 sales. AND he's an outstanding marketer…listen in, you'll learn a bunch. We covered: How Matthew became an overnight success in something like 7 years. (good lessons in this story) How to attract clients (Matthew's also the Head of Coach Training for the 'Book Yourself Solid' School of Coach Training…he's got a unique approach to attracting clients). How and why to diversify and have multiple streams of income. Lots of people talk about this topic, few do it, fewer take this smart approach. Lots of great info covered in less than 45-minutes. Subscribe to the podcast and get every new episode the moment it's released right on your iPhone/iPad/iPod/Mac or PC. Once you listen to it, be sure to jump over to Matthew's site…he's got some really great (and free) stuff that will help you get more clients. http://matthewkimberley.com Steve Complete Transcript Steve:        Welcome to the Small Business Marketing Show.  My name is Steve Gordon.  I am here this week with a really special guest, all the way from the island of Malta.  It's extra special because this is take two of our interview.  We've had to overcome power issues, Mediterranean storms, and all kinds of fun things. I'm here with Matthew Kimberley, the author of ìHow to Get a Grip,î which he bills as the last personal improvement book that you'll ever need to read.  I've read it; it's hilarious.  You've got to get it.  He'll tell you in a few minutes how to do that. He also works with businesses and helps them in the area of sales and marketing.  That's what we're going to be talking about today. Matthew, welcome from the other side of the planet.  Thanks for being here this morning. Matthew:    Thank you so much for having me, Steve. Steve:        I'm glad we've finally been able to connect.  I know we've had some technical challenges, but we're here. I really wanted to talk with you today particularly about sales.  I think you have a very refreshing perspective on that.  It's sort of a get-to-the-point-get-out-there-and-make-something-happen approach. We talk a lot here on the podcast about marketing, attracting clients, and all that.  But sometimes you just need to get on the phone and make it happen.  I'd like for you to just give us maybe a quick little background on you and then your approach to selling. Matthew:     I'd absolutely love to, Steve.  I've been in sales pretty much all my professional life; in fact, even before my professional life started when I told a little white lie about my age when I was 15 in order to be allowed to set up appointments for double-glazing salesmen by telephone. I remember it was a commission-only job in my local town where I'd been juggling to make a living.  I'd been juggling to earn pocket money in the street, busking.  I'd put my hat out and throw knives, fire, and balls all around the air in order to earn some pocket money. It was fine, but it was manual labor.  I'm as lazy as they come.  I thought, ìThere must be an easier way to make money.î  I realized that the local call center - the outbound call center for one of the national double-glazing companies - was hiring.  So I went in there and they hired me. During my school holidays and vacations, I would go and set up appointments on the telephone for the double-glazing reps.  I wasn't allowed to go door-to-door because I was too young.  When I was old enough to go door-to-door, I realized that you could knock on people's doors, and if you knocked on enough people's doors - provided they didn't set a dog on you or throw things out of the window on you - eventually people would start to say yes. I graduated from high school.

The most famous phrase in fast food, "Would you like fries with that" is nothing more than a simple, elegant up sell. Today on the Small Business Marketing Show I talk with Ryan Chapman, up sell expert, and author of "Would You Like to Go Big? How to Increase Initial Customer Value Without Sacrificing Lifetime Value." Ryan shares answers to like: Why are up sells such a big deal? Where do people mess up with up sells? What are the keys to successful up sells online? ...and Offline? And a whole lot more... Adding a relevant up sell offer is one of the best ways to both serve your clients better AND give a big boost to your profits. To get a free copy of Ryan's book Would You Like To Go Big? (Ryan's even offered to pay the shipping!) Click here.  

Leads, Leads, Leads... You need more leads! And this week on the Small Business Marketing Show we're talking to a master of lead generation--Jason Leister. Jason shares some amazing secrets to generating the leads you need to grow your business, including... Why lead generation is so important. Taking the long view when generating leads. How to be valuable to your prospects. Simple ways to stay in front of the leads you generate. The importance of persistence...and how to do it. Jason publishes a fantastic daily email--The Client Letter--you can get it at ArtOfClients.com.  

We spend a lot of time focused on how small businesses can do a better job of marketing themselves here...but today we're going to take a different view. We're going to look at what it takes to find, hire and develop a top-shelf sales team. To uncover the real secrets to a winning sales team I sat down to interview Steve Clark, President of New School Selling and author of the book Profitable Persuasion: Proven strategies for Sales and Management Success. On this episode of the Small Business Marketing Show Steve shares... The reasons behind the dismal state of sales performance. The seven attributes of star sales people. How to find top sales people (it's not in the places you think). Strategies for growing and developing your sales talent. Steve Clark has a number of outstanding and free resources for you on his website. I encourage you to visit him at NewSchoolSelling.com

Followup is one of the best ways to make more sales. Simply persevering until the prospect is ready to buy will win the day most of the time. But followup doesn't just happen, you've got to have a way to keep track of who to contact and when. Early in my career I tried everything from a day planner where, after each contact with a prospect, I'd immediately put a note in the future to re-contact the person. To a tickler file...to Outlook reminders...to seriously expensive CRM software. That's until I found a neat little tool (I say little because it only takes a little time) to keep track of who I need to be in touch with and when. Contactually is that tool. It scans my inbox to see who I contact and how frequently. Then it asks me to put my contacts into buckets. I've got buckets for prospects, clients, family, friends, people in my network. And for each bucket I tell Contactually to remind me to reach out to the individuals in the bucket on a certain interval. And it's a faithful servant. I've just scratched the surface of what it can do and it's saved my bacon at least a half-dozen times. So I reached out to Co-founder and COO Tony Cappaert to give you a demo of all it can do. (And he was kind enough to offer a discount for you...enter the code 'stevegordonmarketing' to get 25% off your first 3-months). That's not an affiliate link...I don't get anything from referring you, this is just a good service that I use myself. Be sure to watch the demo/interview below.

What if you could add $1,000,000 to your business in the next 90 days? Most business owners over estimate what they can accomplish in a month...but they dramatically underestimate what can be accomplished in 90 days. In this episode of the Small Business Marketing Show, I talk to Walter Bergeron, author of The Million Dollar Total Business Transformation. Walter describes how he used autopilot marketing systems to add $1,000,000 in revenue in just 90 days. To get it done, Walter had to overcome the biggest obstacles that I see entrepreneurs face... Finding the time to work on marketing (you'll love Walter's surprising solution to this...) Getting hung up in the search for perfection...when on simple mantra will make you much more money and save you hours of stress. Working sequentially instead of focusing on parallel implementation. Listen to the interview to learn exactly how Walter overcame these challenges and how a massive marketing burst can change your business in the next 90 days. To learn more about Walter and get a copy of his book click here. To get more Small Business Marketing Show Episodes, subscribe on iTunes.