New: Start Using Video Marketing To Gain and Close More Prospects

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, or in the event you are totally out of the loop, you should know video is the hottest form of communication we have right now. Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, Skype, Google Hangouts, FaceTime, Periscope and YouTube have come up and dominated the lines of communication in the last few years. The Live streaming platforms have gained some serious momentum over the past two years and will continue to do so.

There’s some pretty heavy, behind the scenes, psychology going on with videos too, that you probably haven’t even considered. Well for your consideration I’m going to break it all down for you into simple terms so you can implement immediately.

Most of us were born after television was invented. Most of us grew up with a TV set in our homes. I grew up with most of my friends & relatives who had black and white TVs. I grew up thinking The General Lee on the Dukes of Hazard was grey. No way in my young mind was that car bright Orange until I got my first lunchbox. We grew up getting our entertainment, and information from TV.

I learned to count from Sesame Street. (Thanks Big Bird) I learned what animals were what from the Zoo and some books at school. And as I got older, I learned that the news anchors were authorities on information. In my mind, from childhood on it was programmed that whoever is on TV is very important.

Also, I think it’s important to add that the #1 fear in Americans is public speaking. That’s right! We've got Lions, Tigers and Bears (Oh My) but people are more afraid to talk in public than they are any of that. For those of us that communicate with the public on a daily basis, it seems almost weird.

Anyways, getting on video is a form of public speaking. Only to most people, it’s much worse! They are more scared of video than they are a room full of people. Matter of fact, I know public speakers who won’t do video. They hate video. People have a fear of watching themselves. They think it makes them look older, less attractive or even fat. You are almost always your toughest critic.

Meanwhile, that can become a HUGE advantage for those of us who aren’t afraid to get on video! Right?

If you’re like me and you think FEAR is only a four letter word, then video is wide open. You may not know this, but right now, Facebook and YouTube are going at it for video views. They are both trying to consume and host as much video content as possible. We are talking a battle of the Titans and it's happening now.

This means you can take advantage of their competition, in multiple ways, by using video.

1. Way number one is influence. When they see you on video they think of you as a person on TV who conquered their fear and is important.

2. Way number two is getting YouTube and Facebook to help promote your content for FREE.

3. Way three is a video sales pitch that works for you 24/7 without you having to do a thing. It's like having a clone of yourself who works 24 hours each day. You don't have to feed them, pay them and they don't sleep. It's a win-win.

Now, you might think; okay but I don’t know what to make videos about or how to make them. That’s ok! That’s why I’m here and you’re reading this. I’m going to share with you an easy 5 step process to make cool videos. Because, after all, everything revolves around a 5 step process doesn’t it?

You Can Do This with a smartphone and a Free Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope, Skype or YouTube account!

Step One: Ask An Innovative Question

This question needs to let them know, you know. Meaning this question let’s them know that you’re one of them, and that you understand their problem. It needs to repel the people who you DON’T want to watch your video and draw in those perfect prospects you’re making the video for.

Step Two: Become Their Friend

No matter the length of your video you need to bond with them before they will buy from you. The way to do this is to identify one problem (per video) and talk about how you, or better yet, one of your recent clients over came it using your stuff. Hopefully you made a video testimonial of that happy client.

It’s likely, that if you did the research and know your market, there will be people watching the video who have the problem you address. They’ll trust you more if they can hear your voice and see you.

Step Three: Show Them It Works

This is the part where you show them how you or your recent client overcame what you mentioned in the previous step. Now, don’t confuse them with too much information. Give them the short version which should peak their interest.

Step Four: Call To Action

This is the simplest part of the whole process, and at the same time, the one most people screw up on. All you have to do with your call to action is simply ask if they’d like to get the results you got for you or your recent client, for themselves, with your help.

If you’ve done all three previous steps correctly, this part should be a breeze. Make sure, that in your call to action you give them very specific (like you would for a Child) instructions on what to do and expect when they take action.

Step 5: Ask Them To Share

You know how you’re supposed to ask for referrals from everyone, every chance you get? This is that part. After you’ve asked them for their business, you need to ask if they know anyone else you can help. After all, you are their best possible option, Right?

So why wouldn’t they send referrals. All you have to do is end the video with “Please share this video via email or social media with coworkers and friends you know need to see it. Thanks in advance.”

A call to action request for referral combo, Boom! I’ve been making videos forever and I wasn’t always as good as I am now (Still Not Great) and I didn’t have a fancy, internet marketing, 5 step process back then. All that aside, I still took action, it worked for me, it works for my clients, and it will work for you too.

Thanks for reading. I really appreciate it and please share it with anyone you know it can help. Please leave questions or comments below and I will answer in a timely manner. Thanks again!

Are your salespeople truly ready for Social Selling?

If I could give salespeople training in one thing and one thing only, I would pick any one of the ten things on this list before I would train them on "social selling." GASP.. I know, I know.. Let Me Explain! That does not mean I don't believe in "social selling", because I absolutely do, but todays salespeople need to master the basics of selling before advancing to the Expert Level. Here are ten important things sales professionals need to train on in no particular order.

1. How to Set Appointments: There isn’t anything higher on this list because answering sales calls / cold calling and prospecting is what would improve most salespeople’s results faster than anything else. Phone Skills must be Great! Good will no longer suffice. Dialing for dollars says it all.

2. Overcoming Objections: No matter how good you are, without the language and experience to deal with objections, you aren’t creating a win for your customer. If you let them win, they give you an opportunity. That's a win-win! Master your craft and approach each objection in an open manner. Help your customer and they will be happy.

3. How to Differentiate Yourself From Others: I’ve never asked a salesperson what makes their company different and gotten an exact response, even when their manager believes they know. They don't. We cannot blame our sales team for not knowing, because we didn't properly train them. I think this is an easy one. Think about the things customers complain about, and do the exaxct opposite. It is okay to have fun. Be different.

4. How to Negotiate: Most salespeople crumble at the first question about price. I’d teach them to negotiate based on value. Price is what something costs, Value is the products perceived worth, and these numbers are rarely the same. I have always lived by a simple rule of thumb that works well. If the product costs ten thousand dollars, build twenty thousand dollars in value. The customer perceives it's a good deal when value exceeds price.

5. How to Understand What Makes an Opportunity: Unless your client agrees to pursue change with you, you don’t have an opportunity. We must learn to treat every opportunity with the same urgency as we treat a fresh up with a truckload of Cash!

6. How to Follow The Process: Most companies don’t follow a process, and neither do their salespeople. I’d teach them why they should follow it and how it helps them win. If they follow the process and their paycheck grows larger as a result, they will buy in.

7. How to Nurture Their Clients: Too little time, too many prospects. You have to focus on the clients for whom you create the most value. You need to nurture those relationships. Give your customers the VIP treatment, if you don't your competition will. 

8. How to Plan a Sales Call: Honestly, most salespeople don’t plan their sales calls at all. They end up winging it, and stuttering a lot. It’s a mistake to waste a client interaction. Those cost real monery, not monopoly.

9. How to Qualify a Customer: Without understanding your client’s true needs, forget wants, it’s difficult to even present your case when negotiating, and it’s even more difficult to arrive at an acceptable solution.

10. How to Gain Commitments: Most salespeople don’t know the commitments they need, and when they do, they don’t have the skill to gain those commitments. Once again, it's most always a lack of proper training. I’d teach them to close and watch them flourish.  A-B-C

I could add a couple dozen more examples to this list about where most salespeople struggle the most during the buying process. It is unfortunate, but from what I see on a daily basis, we as an industry are still not training our salespeople. They should be capable oh handling every step from answering the sales call to setting the appointment, and finally closing the deal. Yes they can!

I think it's safe to say that each thing on this list will benefit the salespeople more than "social selling". If you want to build a personal brand try being very good at what you do to gain recognition. That will get people to notice you for all of the right reasons. Add the topics you would train on in the comments. Thanks for reading. 

Social Media Marketing Budgets Are No Longer Optional For Online Success

It wasn’t that long ago that budgeting for social media marketing was pretty much nonexistent. Since the rise of the internet driven business model, a strong social media presence is essential to online sales success. In the past the bulk of internet marketing went to banner ads, PPC and email, however the overwhelming popularity of social media has caused a large portion of it to shift to that medium. In fact, four out of five companies increased their social media marketing budgets in 2015 and again in 2016. If you’re trying to figure out how much of your budget to invest in social media marketing, there are many factors to consider, but following the lead of successful companies as outlined below is one way to get a general idea of the numbers.

Step One: Set Your Total Marketing Budget

Because businesses vary so much in terms of costs and profits, marketing budgets vary greatly as well. Your marketing budget may depend on the size of your business, how long you’ve been up and running, what kind of expenses you have, and your overall profit margins. Your budget will also depend on needs. You need to consider the development of your brand in terms of websites, e-brochures, logos, email campaigns, sales presentations, and of course, ads. When starting your business, your marketing budget will need to be much higher in order to get your brand established as quickly as possible. Many small businesses set a starting marketing budget of about 20% of sales. However, once your brand has been established, this number can decrease over time. While you will still need to consider the ongoing expenses of promotions and advertising, you will likely be able to use many of the initial start-up materials you had created for a long time and you can take those out of the budget. In general, with businesses bringing in less than $1 million per year (net), they normally have a marketing budget between 10% and 15%. As the revenue increases, the marketing budget percentage can decrease. It all depends on how competitive your industry or local market is.

Step Two: Devote a Percentage to Internet Marketing

The next step in creating your budget is devoting a percentage of it to internet marketing. This includes online ads, email marketing, social media marketing, landing pages, blogs, and more. Really, any kind of business exposure done online can be considered internet marketing. Again, depending on your type of business, your internet marketing budget will likely differ from others. For instance, if your business is run solely through a website, you will probably need to dedicate most, if not all of your marketing budget to online marketing. However, if you are a local walk-in store with a small website online just for local customers or company image purposes, then you might want to dedicate only a quarter of your marketing budget to internet marketing, specifically to local search optimization.

Just to give you an idea though, in 2015, businesses dedicated an average of 35% of their marketing budgets to digital marketing. However, the forecast for 2017 shows that digital marketing budgets will be increasing as businesses dedicate less to other forms of marketing, such as print and radio ads. This increase could make digital marketing budgets well over 50% by the end of this year. Business owners say they are seeing a much higher return on their investment when investing in digital marketing versus more traditional means, which is likely spurring the change.

Step Three: Determine the Social Media Marketing Portion of Your Budget

While much of digital marketing budgets go to SEO in the way of content marketing, another major part of it should go to social media marketing as well. In fact, between SEO and social media marketing, businesses spent about 50% of their digital budgets on those two categories alone. In the coming years, businesses are expected to increase their digital budgets in the areas of social media, content, and SEO. This is because of the high rate of return on those investments. Marketers found a whopping 42% to 57% lead generation due to their efforts in content and social media marketing last year.

In 2017, the average business would be smart to allocate about 25% of their internet marketing budget to a great social media marketing plan. Remember though, this should be backed by a strong content marketing strategy, so your company has great content to share and discuss on social media, and so there is a reason for the customer to go from your social media page to your website for conversion.

Step Four: Monitor Closely and Adjust Accordingly

As previously mentioned, every business is different and so every business needs to do the work to determine the best possible budget for them. Once you set your budget and start executing your marketing plans, be sure to monitor the results often and carefully. When it comes to social media marketing for business, the potential rewards can be great. However, there can be changes in the market, in internet trends, and in the effectiveness of your campaigns in general. If you find your budget isn’t working, analyze why and make changes. If you find it to be more than successful, you can always decrease it and put those funds where they are most needed. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on marketing trends and costs to evaluate where you stand at least once per month if not more often.

If you’re not sure how to go about setting a budget for social media marketing, or if you’re not sure how best to allocate the money you have budgeted for it, please contact me. I will be happy to take a look at your business and budget and let you know what I think would work best for your specific business and how our Designers, Social Media Marketers, Content Creators and SEO experts can help you make it happen.

Here Are 10 Ways Weak Managers Try To Bully You

1. A weak manager will tell you that your education and training is sub-par. Even though it was more than adequate when they hired you.

2. A weak manager will remind you that no matter how reasonable your ideas are, they are not in line with the company’s direction and therefore should be squelched. Even though upper management has never seen or heard anything about your wonderful ideas.

3. A weak manager will warn you that if you share your opinions with other people in the company, you’ll embarrass yourself. 

4. A weak manager will tell you that you must funnel all communication through them, rather than directly to your intended recipient.

5. They’ll tell you not to speak at cross-departmental meetings, but to let them represent your department and its views.

6. A weak manager will rewrite your report or presentation and put their own name on it.

7. A weak manager will assign someone to train you on a subject you could teach, yourself.

8. They will swoop in and second-guess your work, making tiny corrections to everything you do so you’ll remember who’s the boss and who isn’t.

9. A weak manager will tell you that other managers have said negative things about you, to keep you off-balance.

10. Lastly, a weak manager will criticize you at every opportunity and never, ever praise your work – but when you succeed, they’ll praise themselves for hiring you!

These types of behavior results directly in uncommonly high employee turnover. That costs the company a lot of money once you consider recruiting, interviewing, screening and training. The cost is huge. If you are an owner or in upper management, and you have noticed an uncommon amount of turnover within a certain department I would start looking at the department as a whole from the top down. There is no place in any workforce for this type of behavior. 

If your employer refuses to fix the problem and you consider yourself a valuable asset, start your job search immediately. If they give you grief over taking a couple hours off so you can interview with other companies, Quit! Don't allow them to drag you down, and stop wasting your time trying to lift them up. 

Price Doesn't Sell Product or Services, Up Front Value Does

Have you ever worked with that one sales person who asks the customer for their money right after the handshake? You know who I am talking about. They usually make the prospect so uncomfortable that it is nearly impossible to salvage a sale. Don't be like them. Let me explain.


You can absolutely sell more stuff by giving up front value to potential clients. I see the same mistake over and over all around the internet. Big Flashy Ads that say “if you pay me, I will show you how to do this or let me help you master this for X amount” are starting to be big turn offs. Plus, if you only have one tool in the toolbox, then you really have no perceived long term value to them.


With that in mind, I would seriously consider changing the way you sell online. Most all of the biggest brands and names in internet and social media marketing have already made these changes, my advice to you, is to follow suit. “Evolve or Die” as Craig Charles of BrainyQuote fame likes to say. From this moment on, if you are prospecting clients in any way, shape or form.. be it, online, in person, on the phone or whatever, you have to start giving them examples of up front value to prove why you are the go-to person for their needs.


Example: If you have a landing page up, with a free video offer for opting in, that’s a great start. But assuming once they see a 2 minute FREE video, you can immediately ask them for money to buy your stuff, is just insane. I guess you can, if you are the most persuasive writer ever, but for the other 100% of us, we have to take a few more steps before we can just ask for money. I think of internet and social media marketing, no differently then I think of face to face or phone marketing. I always put a human element to it. Try this, If you just met a random person on the streets that ask you for directions to the local Lexus dealership, just accross town, and you try to sell them your latest and greatest mobile GPS unit, you are going to miss a sale. Why? You missed the chance to prove your up front value by demonstrating how easy your mobile GPS unit is to use and how accurate it is, and you should have used it to offer them free directions and asking them if can you follow up with them later to see if they made it to their destination safely. Now that is VALUE ladies and gentlemen.

If your landing pages are converting but you are not getting sales, then you need to survey your list and find out why they did not buy. Don’t be afraid to ask them the tough questions like; Did I do something wrong? Was the video of any value to you? Did you learn anything new? or did I just plain suck? They will almost always be more than happy to give you all the feedback you need, and sometimes far more than you want.

If you are immediately asking for money at the end of your two minute video presentation, and they are not buying, you need to spend more time creating percieved up front value and bonding with your prospects. In this particular scenario, at least the landing page is converting and you are building an email list. If you want to improve your conversion rates almost immediately give everyone on your list something of real value that they can use instantly, something that will help them succeed. Give them additional videos, sales tips or branding merchandise that you have lying around so that they can see, first hand, that you are a valuable asset to them.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!