Sales and Marketing

The Importance of Ranking on Page 1 of the Search Engine Results

I keep hearing a lot of murmuring in the small business marketing community, talking about Google Adwords/PPC, and other forms of paid advertisement. The general consensus is that these are effective marketing techniques for small businesses, but in actuality, organic search results are where small businesses should be focusing your marketing efforts.

The One and Only Way to Rebuild Trust

Have you ever been in a situation where you have broken trust? What happens when you need to rebuild trust? How do you get it back? There is only one way to build and regain trust: make and keep your promises.

Easy Steps to Getting Local Government Contracts: Part 1

Working with the federal government for contracts can be cumbersome because it is the largest buyer of goods and services in the entire world; it can be especially difficult for a small business. That’s why many small businesses are choosing to work instead with the state or local government.

Are You Contemplating the Upgrade to the LinkedIn Paid Program?

I find that the question asked with the greatest frequency is whether one should upgrade to a paid LinkedIn account. People want to know what the advantages are and when the time is right. My answer: Yes, and you will know when the time is right.

Social Media is a Conversation: Don’t Turn Your Back

Don’t just throw your content out and walk away. Make sure you are accessible and responsive to any feedback coming from your fans. If you do this well, you will see a return on your time spent answering these questions and comments.

Turning Your Value Prop Upside Down

We’re all proud of our value propositions! We feature them in our web sites, we’re trained to brag about them to our customers. Usually, when I hear people describe their company’s value proposition, the focus seems to be all about the company or the product.

3 Ways to Help Customers Remember You

Every company wants customers that return time after time for their products and services. The fact that they do means they are very satisfied with what you have to offer, and it is repeat business you can count on over time. There is no way to force customers to return to you, but there are a few things businesses can do to make customers want to return.

How to Get to Yes

We all love to hear more yeses and Yes is the key to more sales in any direct sales business. Here is a simple system to boost your number of yeses so that you can increase sales and make more money from home.

The Power of Just ONE More Unit

There is such leverage in high gross profit margins once a company is past break-even. Every dollar of gross profit falls to the bottom line, increasing net profit faster with each transaction. The point is that once a company is stable at or above the break-even point, one incremental unit generates robust increases in net profit.

Position Yourself as a Trusted Brand

When your mission in business is to create a product or service with integrity and to earn a reputation as someone who cares about people more than earning money, you’re on the right track. One company I love to use as an example of establishing a trusted brand is Honest Tea.

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