Marketing Opportunity for Illinois Small Businesses to Obtain Contracts from the Government

A management consultant friend of mine wrote an article last week. He cited several sources of potential small business marketing opportunities in Illinois. The article says there are significant opportunities available for enterprising companies. This is not a cake walk, however, since any governmental process which can be slow and tedious. But help and assistance is available through offices scattered through Illinois. Read the rest of the article and follow the links contained at diywebjem.com/blog/

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Using Statistics When You Start an E-Marketing Web Campaign.

In this market you have a choice...stay stagnant or do something, for it's better than nothing. If business is great (and you anticipate it continuing) do the former and count your money all the way to the bank! If you are not satisfied with your business, then I suggest you do the later.

Before you start any E-Marketing campaign you need to set a goal. As you proceed with your tactics, you need measuring sticks to determine your progress. Does something you do cause a reaction or not? How do you know?

Measuring sticks include sales of products and services, as well as sales trends and comparisons. Log on line sales as well as local sales (if applicable). As for your Website and blogs...unique visitor hits, Web pages browsed, exit pages, etc.

You should log telephone inquiries, emails, etc. Try to differentiate between local advertising, referrals, as well as Web based sources.

Note when you try something different to see if there is a significant change in any of the patterns. Some are sort term, while others are long term. When you find a key that brings results, hit on it hard!!!!

But you must try and experiment, analyze and improve, then try some more. These are the Web challenges facing us today in the competitive markets. But these techniques work for us, and they can work for you!

Niche E-Marketing Success Story, a.k.a. The Train is Leaving The Station

I have a story (not another! you say) to tell you this morning. Let me preface this by saying story telling is a salesman’s tool. We use analogies to get our point(s) across. Prior successes become the story lines for a salesman’s act. For we salespeople know we are on stage everyday with our potential customers and clients. All business owners must consider themselves to be salespeople and learn some of our basic sales techniques (i.e. moving people to decide), especially in these economic times.

All salespeople know we must perform well to get rewarded. If we successfully entertain, we get our applause a contract or commission, and get to keep our jobs and benefits! If we are not entertaining we are boo’d, get rejected, ugh(!), and feel badly.
Sometimes our audience even throws rotten fruit at us, too!

Wait, stop, cease and desist! You only feel badly if you are not a true professional for professionals know that a “No” is OK and part of the process. You simply cannot satisfy all of the people all of the time. It is really the “maybes” – stall tactics like, don’t call us we’ll call you, we’ll let you know, or ignoring the calls and emails after your hard work - that drive us up a wall!
Lead, follow, or get out of my way….Please!
Some salespeople are charming and insincere (per my cousin Barbara – I love you!). And some are blunt and frank. Guess what category I fall into?
My wife’s Website continues to draw national business as well as local customers. I recently posted a picture of a new kit for her to market in anticipation of an upcoming event. I needed about 30 minutes to post the previously taken pictures, write copy, and set the prices. In that time I made sure the page and all the items on it were Search Engine friendly. I uploaded the page’s incremental changes only in two minutes. That evening I posted two blog entries as my only advertisement, total time about 15 minutes.

My wife took an order for 21 kits yesterday morning, with add ons. And that is just one order!

Small business owners, attention, may I have your attention, please!
This is the POWER of today's Web. Knowing your niche market, knowing how to make your site search engine friendly, knowing how to advertise your product or service, and moving quickly. For the Web moves at lightening speed and you have to react FAST in an ever changing and competitive arena. It is the future of retailing and marketing.
I believe the Web and e-marketing can be applied to ANY business. That includes any Web business you choose now, or in the future to build.

What you need to survive in this competitive and hostile economy is to identify a niche market or a part of the market you are presently in, and a niche within that market where the competition is weakest. Take one of your products or services (or produce another that you have expertise in) that fills a need in that market. Stir in time and know how and bring the skill sets to a boil. Let it simmer for a while as the aroma fills the marketplace.

If it fails, write it off and cut your losses. If it works, improve on it and duplicate your efforts in another, or newer, part of that niche. If you are truly skilled and motivated already, start several at one time. Learn from one and apply o the other.

Or you can just do what you have been doing in the past, and keep headed where you were going in the past. You will indeed get there.

“Cause” the love train is leaving the station and “if you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you.”

Marketing your business in a slow economy.

"Plan marketplace disruptions that favor your business"
was an article in today’s daily Herald by Jim Kendall

I found it very interesting. In the article he writes:

"Adam Hartung suggests that your business should be the one that shifts the marketplace in a manner that takes competitors by surprise and puts them on the defensive. He goes on to talk about being willing to change. When you focus on execution you become obsessed with price.

"Then soon the difference between you and everyone else is merely price! Change your base and change the competition."

My comments are -- Do what others are not doing. Make yourself different, not the same. Distance yourself from the pack.

Hartung also says what I have been saying for years: "Get obsessive about the competition. Analyze the competition."

Read the rest of the article.

Building a Web Business – Part 1 - Foundation

I am a salesperson who doesn’t sell, that is I do not “hard” sell. I never even knew how to ask for an order until it was shoved in my face. That is until someone came running down the street after me, shouting, come back, we want to buy!

Over the past 27 years I have been steadily successful in an industry I knew nothing about when I entered into it. That was despite the fact I had used the industry’s services in a retail business for years. I was a part owner of that retail business as well.

After the first day of training I came back home and said to my wife: “What have I gotten myself into? I am lost!” At that time I held (and still do) a BS degree in economics and an MBA! The company’s product (and services) was in an applied technical field. My educational background included three years of college engineering studies, advanced mathematics, and I worked for three summers drafting for the Cook County (Illinois) Highways Department. The company had an advance training platform, including video tape training and evaluation.

Despite the adversities and being desperate for a steady income, I became a salesman who learned. I studied my company’s products and services and looked at them from a customer’s point of view. I looked for my customer’s needs and I told stories. I looked for applications within my products and services to solve prospect’s needs. Then I offered my prospects a solution. Sometimes those solutions included services from competing companies!

Personal comment: My momma didn’t raise a fool! I would rather get a large piece of the pie rather than no pie!

Finally, I let them make an adult decision. By being frank I developed a following based on trust. When I made a promise to do something for a prospect or a customer, it happened.

To be continued...