Why Are You A Marketing & Sales Trainer?

Without marketing, there are no sales & without sales, there is no need for marketing.

When I go into businesses and train they ask me why do we need are sales people here? I thought you were training our marketing department, yes I am however if your sales people don't know what your marketing team is doing, there is a total disconnect. When the communication is lacking between sales and marketing your business is absolutely losing money no question, it's guaranteed.

Salesforce.com states that only 8% of companies combine their sales and marketing teams together, no wonder these business owners think I'm a little crazy.  When you merge your teams together and marketing listens to the needs of the sales professionals and clients amazing things start to happen within the company. 

When I set up my consultation, I want to meet with sales manager & marketing managers, this immediately scares the business owner.  Only a handful of trainers do this and it well, I trained in sales first &  then marketing became my passion because I needed bodies to sell too.  So well I realized how many companies out in the world were not merging their sales and marketing teams together, I couldn't believe my eyes.  Research after research showed me theses statistics look at Salesforce, understanding this is what made me unique in my training.  Communication is King!

I have turned away so many companies that are looking for immediate results but are not willing to merge these two branches of their company together.  It's peculiar to me, I am not asking for them to sit together just weekly meetings or basic understanding of each other needs and wants to grow.  The sales professional are usually on board as well as the marketing team, here is where it gets good it's the manager's, directors, and the VP's they are the problem.  My suggestion is to get over it already if you're not growing, you're dying. 

One of that last consultation I was with the director's of sales & marketing and I invited the CEO, who was reluctant but he hired me, so he came.  I had already spoke with the marketing team and the sales team and was ready to present my suggestion. When the four of us were in the board room and I showed my plan the CEO was thrilled.  The two directors decided I had know idea what I was talking about, this could never work we are separate entities.  My answered stunned them, I said and you can stay that way and exactly where you are it is no problem, however, I here to help your company to grow.

 Here is what happened throughout this process one person understood how imperative it was for the sales and marketing teams to work together.  This woman had great ideas and a solution thinker, and really supportive and seemed to be well liked in the company.  I suggested to the CEO that he may want a coordinator to bring the two directors together and slowly merge them together.  The CEO said what a great idea, I brought up the woman and stated she seemed like a good fit as a go-between.  The directors seem to both like her and stated, this does make sense and we want to grow, let's discuss it further.  

When I did the follow-up with the four of them, I found out that the CEO named the woman, Director of sales and marketing overseeing the both of them.  Amazing, understand I only give suggestion and guidelines to help them in getting a better ROI.  Here is the best part they were all happy, which surprised me because she was new to the company and had no formal college degree.  The sales team increased sales by 18% and the marketing team decreased the lead cost per acquisition.  Work together as a team, read this article below & learn more.  Contact me to work with your company. 

End the cultural differences between your sales and marketing teams.

   Harvard Business Review -  Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing

Creative - Solution Thinking

Creative - Solution Thinking

Have you caught yourself saying that there could be no other solution to a problem and that that problem leads to a dead end? How often have you felt stumped knowing that the problem laying before you is one you cannot solve. 

Did it feel like you had exhausted all possible options? When encountering such enormous problems, you may feel like you're hammering against a steel wall. The pressure of having to solve such a big problem may be overwhelming.

With some creative problem-solving techniques you may be able to look at your problem in a different way. The light might just be the end of the tunnel that leads to possible solutions.

First of all, in the light of creative problem-solving, you must be open-minded to the fact that there may be more than just one solution to a problem. You must be open-minded to the fact that there may be solutions to problems you thought were unsolvable.

Be optimistic, with an optimistic mindset, we can be more creative in solving our problems.

1. The possible reason we cannot solve our problems is that we have not really taken a hard look at what the problem is. Try to understand the problem and have a concrete understanding of why it's a problem. If you know how it works, what the problem is, then you have a better understanding to solving the problem.

2. Try to take note of all of the constraints and assumptions you have of the problem. Sometimes it is these assumptions that obstruct our view of possible solutions, you have to identify which assumptions are valid, in which assumptions need to be addressed.

3. Try to solve the problem in smaller parts. Solve it going from general view towards the most detailed parts of the problem.  Write down the question, and then come up with a one-sentence solution, for them. The solution should be a general statement of what will solve the problem, from here you can develop the solution further, and increase its complexity one step at a time.

4. It will help to have critical thinking aboard as you solve a problem, you must also keep a creative, analytical voice at the back of your head. When someone comes up with a prospective solution, try to think how you could make that solution work. Try to be creative and at the same time, look for the usefulness of that solution.

5.  Remember that there may be more than just one solution being developed at one time. Try to keep track of all the solutions as they develop. There could be more than just one solution to a problem.

6.  Don't be stubborn " two heads are better than one." That one is truer than it sounds. Be open to new ideas,  you can only benefit from listening to all the ideas each person has. This is especially true when the person you're talking to has had experience solving problems similar to yours.

You don't have to be a solo hero to solve the problem. If you can organize collective thought on the subject, it would be much better. Ask for help, it's a strength, not a weakness.

7.   As long as you persevere, there is always a chance that a solution will present itself. Remember that no one was able to create an invention the first time around, be patient.

Creative thinking exercises could also help you in your quest be a more creative problems solver. 

Take a piece of paper and write any word that comes to mind in the center. Look at that word, then write the first two words that come to your mind. This can go on until you can build a bunch of related words. 

The solution could be staring you in the face. All it takes is creative thinking, some planning, and some work.

Do Your Own Blog...

Do Your Own Blog...

When you are trying to monetize and create a following, you will need a good, simple, and easy to navigate website to put them on, I suggest Blogger.com. There are two ways that you may be able to accomplish this: You could do it yourself whether you have any web design skills or not, learn some basics or hire someone else to do it, however, if you don't know the basics, you will not know how to hire the right person.

Doing it yourself, unless you are a professional, to begin it could be difficult for some, follow the blogger tutorials. You will need to read some tutorials and it may take some time to get going. You could also risk having a site that looks bad, no worries, it's all fixable. It is also important (for visitors and search engines) that your site is easy to navigate, which may be a problem if you do not know what you are doing.  Learn the basics, you will not know how to hire the right person.

Making a Do It Yourself website can be hard, so use blogger.com and other people's articles (like NY times or major news sources), make sure you give the link and the author's name DO NOT COPYWRITE, FAIR_USE_Act.  When you accomplish your goal, maybe you will learn so much that you could make new niche sites for other's and get paid!

How is your business selling to the holiday shoppers in 2016?

How is your business selling to the holiday shoppers in 2016?

Fabulous, the holiday's are upon us.  If you sell products or service what are you doing to market to the holiday shoppers? Digital shopping is expected to increase 25% according to PwC's report.  Your customer or client is getting slammed with holiday sales & black Friday deals, so how do stand out? 

First and foremost we all search on ur phones and tablets, but we do not purchase. Then they are either going to the store or going to their computer to purchase. So please make sure that the mobile ads you are running are browser friendly and not pushing buy now, knowing they most likely will purchase differently.  Make it easy for them to save a picture or list of the top 5 or so items you find to be great holiday gifts.  

Do some research on what people may be searching for this year's gifts, be different, unique is good. Know your current customer base and offer a discount for a particular item or service, gift certificates are always a good idea.  Have your team's input on ideas remember someone quietly sitting in the corner may have a brilliant idea, listen carefully.

When it comes to the holidays make sure you are not missing out!  Do not be afraid to spend money on PPC ads on different platforms depending on your products and services you offer.  Keywords around holidays phrases and ideas, like Christmas, Santa, Rudolph, Hannukah think of your favorite holiday memories.  Have fun with your marketing if you are having fun then the end user will feel that as well, don't be afraid of being you and showing it in your ads.   Make sure you have your ads targeted for remarketing to get the biggest bang for your buck!

Understanding the SMM side of things live videos of your office short

 and sweet, showing your staff decorating or secret Santa silliness.  Remember you can get away with more around the holidays, be professional & kind, but have fun! Every business should be doing some sort of charitable drive whether it be Food, toys for tots or whatever your passion might be.  If people are able to work with and buy from a company that gives back, so make it public that people can come by and drop off donations or a portion of the service they purchase will go to a charity.

Jeanne Zierhoffer

Get a consultation for your business, make sure you are 

positioned correctly to get the holiday shoppers you deserve.

Being An Expert vs Hiring An Expert

I just finished reading an article on Entrepreneur.com that was discussing the 10 best skills to learn online today.  I found it interesting but a little tough to accomplish such a task each  is an expertise in itself.  When I am out speaking to small business owners and entrepreneurs those 10 things would shut them down. I am not saying they are not important however for a small business owner to tackle such a daunting list, could be overwhelming.

Everything he has written about in this article is a learnable skill set, I agree, however, if you are becoming an expert in all these fields you won't be growing your business.  I believe in having an understanding how each one of these works is a huge advantage. That way when you are discussing your plan with each expert, you will have an idea if they know what they are talking about. Hire a team of experts to handle each one of these daunting tasks and have a plan for each of these specialized fields. I have a team of specialized people that are well versed in all of these fields.  

However, two things he  discusses I believe all business owners and entrepreneurs have to know is Analytics and Human Behavior if you do not have a handle on these two topics you are sunk.  First one is analytics, you must understand how to analyze your business meaning, your website utilizing google analytics (the basics) knowing how people are getting to your website.  

More importantly running a business requires you to manage people, whether it's just you or not , you will need to manage yourself, so understanding your own behavior is key.  You will probably be required to sell something even if it's just selling you, so to speak.  if you don't know how to sell you are sunk, Robert Kiyosaki says "the number one skill set in business is the ability to SELL."  Learning the art of selling is the most important skill set, it is a must for any business owner or entrepreneurs.  

Click to read full article on Entrepreneur:  R.L. ADAMS 
ENTREPRENEUR, SOFTWARE ENGINEER, AUTHOR, BLOGGER AND FOUNDER OF wANDERLUSTWORKER.COM

How To Use Share To Drive Traffic Today

How To Use Share To Drive Traffic Today

More and more webmasters have the recurring dilemma on how to increase the flow of traffic in their client's websites. During the past few years many methods that have been developed to solve this predicament. While most of them would work there are those that would not make even a small impact. Jeanne Zierhoffer at JZ LifeStyle Team understands how to efficiently target your local market and ideal client or customer. 

One of the methods that have spawned many success stories in driving traffic to your websites is viral marketing. Viral marketing makes use of the tendency of a person to share something to find informative, entertaining or amazing. 

Many companies bank on this behavior to increase the popularity of their companies website. Viral marketing makes use of many mediums in enticing this behavior. It might be in the form of an interesting story, an addicting flash game, an amusing video and many others that may catch a person’s fancy.

This ingenious form of marketing is typically low cost and is a wonderful tool for any company to utilize. The benefit greatly overshadows the cost or efforts to initialize this marketing scheme. Any website would greatly benefit with Jeanne Zierhoffer's viral marketing.

One of the easiest methods in viral marketing is using the share on social media. This is a simple way that you can attach to the programming of your website. Generally, share with a friend on social media are installed in pages where media is placed so that a person can easily share the media to any friends or fans.

Then the process can be repeated over & over again. As more people share the media with friends & fans, more and more people will know of the existence of your companies website. People who read the ads who liked your page will click on the link and visit your  website. This drives traffic to your website resulting in a greater number of potential customers.

In the search results page, you will see many links that will direct you to a site where you can tell a friend or share. It would just be a simple matter of looking for your ideal client or customer.

With share viral marketing strategy you can drive traffic to your site which could potentially spell profits. This is a simple harmless script that offers great benefits for low cost paired with great creativity and foresight.

It is imperative that you have patience in using a with a friend script or fan. If your chosen media doesn’t get the mileage that is expected of it, it may take some time before it gets spread or shared. But surely many people will see your ads and there is a greater probability that they will visit your website increasing your traffic flow.