Lakeshore Garden Space

by Mark De Roo, Advisor

Do certain things stick in your mind?  Sure they do.  Here’s a headline from my hometown newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch that has stayed in my mind since high school:  Sneezing in St. Louis Causes a Thunderstorm in Shanghai.    As a weather-wannabe, that headline grabbed me.

In reading the article, it was all about how the pressure exerted when sneezing (obviously, the person has no manners and didn’t cover his/her mouth!) can change the molecular structure of the immediate molecules in the area-which impact the air molecules in the St. Louis area-which then alter the molecular composition of water particles in Missouri-which then change the air environment of the entire Midwest-which then adjusts things for the entire North American continent-which travels ¾ of the way around the world with such force that a thunderstorm is created over the Himalayas and eventually dumps a ton of water on Shanghai.  Now, that’s some type of sneeze!   Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

I’m often asked by challenged CEO’s, VP’s of sales and marketing, and non-profit leaders within many organizations the same question when it comes to marketing. “Tony, how do we get people to pay attention to us?”

This to me is often a three, five or ten year problem in the making that I can’t solve with a simple five-minute solution. I often throw back when asked this the question: “How are you tracking and handling leads?” I do this not to confuse, but more importantly to get a quick read on a potential problem that’s much deeper than the best marketing could ever help to solve. Read the rest of this entry »

 TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

Yes, the famous quote from former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been on my mind lately when I meet with business and non-profit leaders to discuss marketing strategies and the present state of the U.S. economy. I get various reports from many of them on how sales and profits are doing. Many economists are now saying we’re in a recession and that the future is grim. While my opinion is just that, I want to push you to think differently in a market that has obvious challenges and opportunities at the same time.

So let me ask you a direct question: What is your business or non-profit doing to not just maintain but grow right now? This isn’t a practical joke. I’m going to jump on my little soapbox with this blog post today because frankly, I’m getting tired of the fear and excuses being made by people from all sectors complaining about the economy, gas prices, inflation, and most of all their sales. Read the rest of this entry »

Joseph Lampen, Advisor

Over the last several years as a commercial lender I’ve had the pleasure of helping many individuals obtain financing for their investments or businesses. I have heard many of the same things over and over to the point it’s a comedy when the words come out of a borrower’s mouth. There’s nothing inherently wrong with making these statements, its not like you’ll be denied if you catch yourself saying them. There are just some better ways to present yourself and your proposal when meeting with a banker. Here are some of my favorite comments and suggested alternative advice:

1. “These projections are really conservative.” Yep, I know. They always are because everyone is conservative. Is it because we live in West Michigan? The reality is, though, that you shouldn’t have to be ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’, just rational. If you’ve done your homework, you should be able to project your revenues and expenses fairly accurately in a base case. From there you can prepare an upside surprise or a downside shock to evaluate the different effects certain events might have on the operational cash flow of your business. Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

I’d like to share with you Five Proven Ways To Stay In Touch With Key Customers, Prospects and Referral Partners

I’ve been traveling a lot lately and I wanted to give you an in-depth article of immense value, if applied, to make up for lost time.

I’m absolutely amazed at the large number of businesses that take their customers, prospects and referral partners for granted. In the non-profit world the same mentality is often seen in relation to donors, volunteers and key board members. I know I sound like a broken record to many loyal readers of this blog, but here are three key reasons why tightening the bond of communication with those who influence, shape or spend money with you is a smart marketing strategy: Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

Here are three timeless marketing principles that work despite recessions, wars, the media, election year slogans and attempts at social engineering (I couldn’t resist sounding a little ’snobby’ by using big terms.) to bring you down and hinder your ability to grow and prosper:

1. The power of stories. For fear of sounding like a broken record to some of you, let me hammer home the point again that using stories in all of your marketing efforts is a wise idea. In the age of fragmented and sped up communication, the lost art of storytelling can give you a decided advantage in the competitive market place of ideas and influence. In the age of digital use video, audio and blogs in addition to your other marketing avenues to spread the story.

Here are some great idea starters to keep your marketing stories fresh, updated and increase the odds of customers, prospects and associates reading or listening to them:

*Before and after examples *Show you solved a problem *Client feedback or testimonials *Employee comments *Your work in the community/industry *Why your organization exists or mission *How your company started or key history or milestones *Updates *Positive articles or news stories about you or your industry

2. Good old fashioned listening to others. Forget focus groups. They’re too easy and often times the feedback can be skewed. Let’s get real. Pick up the phone and make a phone call. Simple, yet highly effective in the age of email, and printed surveys that most people never look at or rush through because they see little value in spending time to fill out. Humans talking to one another will give you feedback that’s priceless for both parties. Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

In my last blog entry I discussed my recent escapades to Disney with my wife and kids. I shared three marketing lessons with a promise to give you five in total.

I find myself in my scenic hotel room here in Colorado Springs about two hours away from giving a dinner speaking engagement. I wanted to reveal the remaining two marketing gems from Disney per my last posting.

4. Pictures to sell the experience. You’ve heard it before I’m sure, but let me remind you that a picture is worth a thousand words. Once case in point involves signage. The parks we visited all used vibrant and easy to read signage with pictures to direct, explain and guide you throughout the park. Many a retailer could pick off a list of brilliant visual signage strategies from walking through a Disney property to gather ideas for helping them attract and let people know how to find them or identify key in-store promotions and offers. Read the rest of this entry »

TERRY MADDEN, ADVISOR

I watch the political process with a mix of curiosity and disdain. It seemingly brings out the worst in people, be it politicians ranting back and forth, talking heads spouting opinions based on nothing, or average citizens writing to the local newspaper editorial page with over the top claims about what they “know” to be the truth. I am not naïve enough to believe that people’s opinions have not created controversy and conflict for more years than I have been alive. It does seem, however, that the stance of “my opinion is actually a fact and you are an idiot” has become increasingly more prevalent and it is disturbing.

Pulling this to a business discussion, this attitude is becoming more widespread in the sales process and I want to caution new and seasoned sales people alike not to fall into this trap. When I started in my career decades ago, the sales process was truly a process. It was assumed that any customer worth capturing was going to take a long time (months if not years) to land. Planning was based on this assumption. Today, the sales process is seemingly more event driven. Managers demand much quicker turning of accounts and are not willing to let time and relationships develop.

To shorten the sales cycle, many professionals are turning to negative campaigns. I am sure this sounds familiar. I have heard from a number of my contacts through the years that my competition has been less than flattering about the companies I have worked for. The premise is always the same. My competitions pitch will be “we are the best company in our industry and all of our competitors are useless and awful”. This is a foolish and, ultimately, failing stance. Read the rest of this entry »

 Web link submitted by Amanda Chocko

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It’s the online equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising. And just like its offline cousin, it’s the most effective way to get new business.

This advertising mode is known as “link building,” and it involves getting other Web sites to link to your site. It’s like one of your neighbors recommending a good plumber or handyman; it carries more weight than if a person just stumbled across your Web site.

In today’s world, there is much more to good search engine listings than simply optimizing your site for keywords.

In order to keep searchers happy, search engines are always developing ways to make their results more relevant. In the last couple of years, links have become increasingly more important to the engines because they see links as an endorsement of your site by other Web sites. Think about it for a minute: Would you link to a site you didn’t like?

This concept is referred to as “link popularity.”

Based on the links pointing to your site, the search engines either increase or decrease how relevant your site is for particular keyword searches.

Obviously, you want to increase your site’s relevancy, right? Good. That’s the goal here: to make sure you start building the right kind of links for your site in order to improve your search-engine results.

To this day, the best way to build links is still doing it by hand. Here are the steps you should follow when building links: Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

I’m sitting in the Atlanta Bread Co. here in sunny Orlando and reflecting back on a week filled with fun, beaches and of course - amusement parks we visited. My wife always warns me to turn my marketing brain either off or keep it hidden from her when on vacation as I’m always observing things anywhere I go as they relate to sales, marketing or customer service.

I must tell you as a loyal reader of my marketing and motivation ideas, rants and wisdom (yes, I’m getting carried away now) that I risked life, limb and mamma’s wrath to bring you relevant lessons direct from the marketing front.

Temptation overcame me last Thursday and I couldn’t resist noting some great marketing taking place. As my wife, three children, mother-in-law and myself all waited in line last Thursday for a ride at Epcot, I could resist temptation no longer and I turned around slowly and grabbed a pen and receipt from my back pocket and carefully scribbled out five things on the back of a receipt that I noticed at Animal Kingdom and Epcot that were forms of great marketing in action. Read the rest of this entry »