Year: 2010

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Expand Your Sales Force – Part 1 of 2

Man in blue suit studying sales chart

Establish an Online Affiliate Program

Online marketing can quite effectively expand your sales force (and your sales!) with minimal cash outlay and greatly increased margins.

Your business can literally explode online sales with a simple and easy to administer Affiliate Marketing program. Using one website to drive sales to another website is the basic concept employed in affiliate marketing, which is growing in favor among retailers everywhere who are looking for innovative ways to increase sales.

Use an Affiliate Network

Affiliate Networks are companies that match retailers and salespeople. They handle all the transaction flow in exchange for compensation from the transactions and the relationships. Affiliate Networks act as the intermediary between retailers (called Merchant Affiliate programs) and salespeople (called Publishers or Affiliates).

Top Affiliate Networks coordinate hundreds, and even thousands of Merchant Affiliate programs, which are searchable by keyword in their extensive directories. Affiliates earn a sizable commission for each sale made through their own website. On their own websites, Affiliates often promote a wide variety of Merchant programs related to their core business and customer needs.

Affiliate Network Services and Benefits

For Merchants, Affiliate Network services and benefits may include:

  • instant tracking technology,
  • extensive reporting tools,
  • automated payment processing, and
  • access to a large base of resellers/Publishers.

For Affiliates, services and benefits can include

  • simplifying the process of registering for one or more Merchant Affiliate programs, greatly reducing the administrative and record keeping burdens,
  • automated reporting tools, and
  • complete payment aggregation.

Affiliate Network Costs

Affiliates are generally able to join top Affiliate Networks for free, whereas there is generally a fee for Merchants to participate. Traditional Affiliate Networks might charge an initial setup fee and/or a recurring membership fee. It is also common for Affiliate Networks to charge merchants a percentage of the commissions paid to Affiliates.

In the next post, we’ll go into more depth, identify top Affiliate Networks, and take a look at Affiliate Network compensation models.

What Affiliate Marketing success stories can you share?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

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Corporate Support of Special Events

a-firm-manager-conversing-with-a-potential-client.

Reading Hank’s postings on “Corporate Fundraising,” made me think about a recent series of conversations my firm has had with a potential client about managing a conference (including a major dinner event) for them.

During one of those conversations, I was asked about assisting them with getting corporate sponsors for the conference. My response to that question is always the same.

While I have contacts with some corporations, I will only make the connection between the client and the corporation provided the organization’s mission and interests dovetail with those of the corporation. No point in setting up a meeting that goes nowhere because the corporation is not remotely interested in the organization’s goals and objectives.

If there appears to be a match, then it will benefit both the organization and the corporation to have me call my contact at the corporation and set up an introductory meeting; and, there are times, depending on circumstances, when I will go with the client to their first meeting with the corporation.

I do that only as a part of my relationships with client organizations and with corporations, not for a percentage or commission of any support a corporation might provide to a nonprofit.

I make it clear to my clients that I am not a “fundraiser.” I do not sell tables to corporations for a client’s dinner or luncheon or ask them to sponsor a coffee break at a client’s conference. I do not “dial for dollars,” but I do make connections … there is a difference!

No one can legitimately make the case for a corporation to support a nonprofit as well as can be made by the board members and staff of the organization. And, by “legitimate,” I mean that when the nonprofit makes its own case it’s a lot clearer that no “middleman” is going to get a piece of the corporation’s support of that organization.

Sometimes nonprofit organizations don’t understand or ignore the difference between having a conference and special event firm help them make the connection versus raise the money for them. They often only hear what they want to hear.

To them, the idea that a conference and special event firm has connections to corporations means that they (the nonprofit) won’t have to “get their hands dirty,” that someone else will get the big bucks for them.”
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Have a comment or a question about creating or expanding your special event? Email me at Info@NatalieShear.com. With over 30 years in conference and event planning, we can help you turn your vision into reality.
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Have you seen Natalie’s ebook on Special Events ??

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Practice of Appreciative Leadership

Silhouette of people following their leader on a hill

Guest Submission by Amanda Trosten – Bloom

Strengths Spotting

In my last post, I offered history and some detail on the Five Core Strategies of Appreciative Leadership. Today, instead, I’ll share some of the practices of Appreciative Leadership. But first, I must make a confession. We’ve all heard it said that we teach what we need to learn. Not surprisingly, co-authorship of Appreciative Leadership has reminded me of things I know and believe – but may not consciously enact on a daily basis. It’s also brought me face to face with new frontiers in my own appreciative leadership.

Take Illumination, as an example. I know about Illumination. I’m privileged enough to be surrounded by people who deeply acknowledge my strengths. I regularly, intuitively and clearly see other people’s strengths. But do I share what I see just as regularly, maintaining a 5-to-1 ratio of positive-to-negative comments about who people are and how they operate? Absolutely not. In fact, when I’m in the thick of things, I have an unfortunate tendency to comment only on what’s broken, what didn’t get done, and what’s still on the horizon. In our book, we describe a practice called strengths spotting that helps me address this unfortunate tendency. It’s a simple but profound process:

  1. Ask someone to tell you about something they’ve done that they feel proud of.
  2. Listen, watch their expressions, and make note of the underlying strengths that they’ve expressed or described.
  3. Share what you heard.

Strengths spotting can occur in a casual conversation, or formally: in a job interview, performance development session, or career planning process. “By asking for and listening to stories and thereby illuminating strengths, you can easily identify what a person wants to do and is capable of doing. You can then consider if this person’s strengths are a good fit for the available job.” (Appreciative Leadership, p. 69).

Positive Questions

There are other examples like this for me: principles I know, but forget to turn to … practices I believe in, but forget to apply. For example, “The Wisdom of Inquiry” suggests that we ask more and tell less. I’m profoundly aware of the power of positive questions to engage. But when I really get going, there are very few people who have more answers (or are more certain in their answers) than I. On balance, my “ask-to-tell” ratio (Appreciative Leadership, p. 31) is a great deal lower than I wish it were. How has this book helped me boost it? It’s elevated my awareness, and encouraged me to plan ways and times that I will ask more questions. Speaking engagements, meetings with clients, in the face of criticism: these are all opportunities to ask more questions, rather than lead with answers.

Conscious Decision Making

Here’s another example. The strategy of Integrity calls us all to conscious decision-making. It suggests that every decision we make affects other people, and other choices. When I automatically say yes to too many things, or take on too many projects or responsibilities, I feel great about sharing my gifts and helping people out … but at what cost? I start “speeding” – perhaps forgetting to consider other people in the process. I sleep badly, and get grumpy. I get absent-minded – perhaps forgetting other obligations, or dropping balls that other people have to pick up. In other words, my unconscious decision to over commit regularly and negatively impacts the people around me … not just me. It hinders the greater good. “Appreciative Leadership consciously attends to the choices they make, both personally and collectively, to create a world that works for all.” (Appreciative Leadership, p. 170)

Appreciative Development

Why, you might ask yourself, do I share these challenges of mine? My hope is to remind myself (along with those who read this blog) that we are all on this Appreciative Leadership journey together. We’ll never fully “arrive” … instead, we’ll do the best we can a day at a time, using the best tools and resources that are available to us. The book Appreciative Leadership – co-authored with Diana Whitney and Kae Rader – offers generative stories and practical tools that can help each of us walk that path a little more consistently and consciously. In so doing, it may help others do the same – and make the world kinder, better place. Lena ecunk’unpi, hecel oyate ki ninpe kte. (“We do these things so the people may live.”)

Amanda Trosten-Bloom, Managing Director, Corporation for Positive Change, Twitter: @ATrostenBloom, amanda@positivechange.org

[A1]Link to last post

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by Martin Keller

SEO on a wooden blocks

Search Engine Optimization & PR: Google Me This

I am not a Geek. Let’s get that out there right away. I’m a former pop culture writer and editor and now a PR guy, a flack, a publicist (mostly, 8-5 anyway) with some good ideas and communication skills. And like most people I know, I try to keep abreast of the technologies and social media implications of the profession and try to leverage them to the client’s advantage. The occasional webinar or seminar helps.

Over the years, however, I’ve relied on close colleagues and friends — and the occasional kindness of strangers — who are Geekish to lead me through the forest. Some days we are in the thick, others days we reach the clearing. Ten years ago, clients started asking about search engine rankings, what today is conventionally called SEO — Search Engine Optimization.

“How do I come up better in searches?”

“Good question. Let’s see who can help you with that.” And I’d call up the guys who knew how to help.

Today, I offer the latest SEO insights from the giant that practically invented search, Google. It’s very contemporary, even providing a section on mobile sites. Of course, if you’re like me, some of it may be pure Geek to you. Understood. Share it with the teckie in your org, or your own Geek Friends. But scan it for insights to try and stay current —at least on the thinking — even if the moving parts piece of this leaves you cold and uncertain.

Here’s the link to it: Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide:

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

See you in the forest clearing. Bring marshmallows. We’ll do smores and talk PR and stuff.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Public and Media Relations.

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Martin Keller runs Media Savant Communications Co., a Public Relations and Media Communications consulting company based in the Twin Cities. Keller has helped move client stories to media that includes The New York Times, Larry King, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, plus many other magazines, newspapers, trade journals and other media outlets. Contact him at kelmart@aol.com, or 612-729-8585

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Professional Development: Are You Learning Every Day?

A group of 3 learning together

Professional DevelopmentAre you learning new shots or skills every single day?

Jack Nichlaus was asked if there are really talented golfers who never make it. “Oh, hundreds of them”, he replied. “A lot of people out there are more talented than I am and yet, through the years, I’ve passed them by. That’s because I never was satisfied with my game. I was learning new shots every single day.”

It’s up to you to make sure you are continually improving, growing, and learning every day. It’s up to you to make sure you never go out of style! It’s up to you to take charge of your professional development. Here’s how.

1. Have a learning perspective.

Be on the lookout for teachable moments. Approach each learning experience, whether you want to be there or not, with the questions: What can I learn? What one or two things can I take away that I can use immediately? Who else would find value in this learning?

2. Benchmark your skills periodically.

Do it at least once a year. For those in a fast moving profession or industry every three months may be required. In other words, what’s in your work portfolio? Is it filled with skills or competencies that are up-to-date and sought after? Or, is it filled with skills which are obsolete and not very portable?

3. Create a learning plan.

Pinpoint specific skills and knowledge that you need to acquire or up-grade. Then identify the professional development activities that are available to you. They can include mentor relationships, special assignments at work, in-house and public seminars, professional conferences, on-line courses, university education, books, journals, blogs, etc.

Are you learning every day?

I hope so. If not, you may find yourself a professional dinosaur…out of touch, out of skills and out of work. Just as a company invests in its own research and development, you need to invest in your own career growth and development. Remember, as you never outgrow your need for milk, you never outgrow your need for professional development.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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Procurement and projects – best and worst practice?

The following is definitely not at the “best” end.

I recently had to respond to a bid for major customer – in the customer ITT the usual procurement rules were laid down. The ITT had been written in English; by someone who’s native tongue was not. The document was full of inconsistencies, incomplete or vague and conflicting statements.

In the procurement rules in the ITT, it stated that: “no meetings or verbal discussions would take place with any of the bidders” – all communication would done in writing, and it got worse, in one single pass. In other words, no clarification on the customer’s response to bidders questions would be entertained, and from this, the bidders were expected to present binding fixed price bids.

Sadly, in the world of procurement, this is not an isolated case.

Many projects rely completely on procurement, but too often the project team’s decisions or needs are overruled by the procurement process or function – and the end result? The project has to try and fix the issues that this leaves behind or generates – and sometimes they can’t be fixed.

Surely there has to be a better way?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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Your Advertising Budget

Budget written on a note on a notepad

3 Ways to Approach Ad Planning

Especially in hard economic times, setting an advertising budget is enormously important. Many companies cut advertising when revenues shrink, or expenses creep up.

Reducing your ad spend could be an expensive mistake, further escalating the problem. If you’re not consistently in front of your customers – in the media – your sales may take an additional hit.

Before You Set Your Ad Budget

Step back and take a moment to think about a few factors before you start. How much you spend on advertising depends on your position in the market, the competition you face, and other factors.

You should:

  • know and understand your competition and THEIR advertising strategies,
  • analyze your performance compared to last month and last year,
  • note the length of the selling season compared to last year, and
  • watch for selling trends, such as shifts in demographics that may affect buying trends.

3 Ways to Plan Your Ad Budget

No matter how you budget, there never seems to be enough marketing money to go around. But using one or a combination of these budgeting methods will help you implement your marketing plan.

1. Budgeting a percentage of sales: Provides a good budget starting point, but when sales decline, you have less money to solve your marketing problems. It’s also not a good approach if you’re trying to expand into a new area.

2. Budgeting according to the tasks you want to accomplish. Ties the amount you spend to the marketing mix activities you have developed. If good marketing objectives have been chosen, this plan offers the best chance of reaching them, but it doesn’t take affordability into account.

3. Budgeting based on what your competition spends. Should enable you to stay competitive in the market and allows you to respond rapidly to a competitor’s marketing campaign. However, basing your activities on those of others may restrict your own company’s growth potential.

Have you found effective ways to plan your advertising budget?

(Thanks to Realtor.org for the 3 Ways to Plan.)

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

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Tell me something good…..Reward and Recognition isn’t always easy

A happy lady

If you are a call centre leader, and your centre has a well structured program which is administered by a designated person, your job is half done. Usually the ceremonies are all booked and planned, you just have to show up, hand out the certificates, gift cards, prizes…maybe say a few words, but basically – it’s done.

What’s not so easy is the ‘stuff’ you need to do that no one else can do for you – the one on one recognition, the personal touch, the verbal thank you. Sometimes these types of recognition are the most important to people. Let’s try this out:

Julie, a call centre agent in your company, is having a bad morning – kids got up late, no lunches were made, she had to stop and get gas on the way to work, nearly late, spilled her coffee – I’ve had one of those mornings and they can set you up pretty nicely for the day (and not in a good way). Julie starts her shift with a couple really frustrating calls and thinks to herself – can this day get any worse? You (her team leader) look at her stats report from the previous day, and she’s had great sales results. You walk over right then and there and give her the high five – “Great job on your sales yesterday Julie – that’s why you’re so valuable to us here at XYZ. You provide great service to our clients and we appreciate it”. Imagine how those 28 words, which didn’t cost anything, didn’t require streamers, balloons or certificates, no gift cards or prizes – imagine how they impact Julie. If I was Julie here – I’d probably be taking a deep breath and mentally starting my day over again with a fresh attitude.

Sounds easy right? Sad to say that this is one of the hardest things to teach new team leaders and managers – the importance of on-the-spot, unplanned, unrehearsed recognition. I was terrible at it (I’ll admit it) and I realized that everything else seemed more important in a day – answering emails, attending meetings, whatever. I decided that I needed a daily reminder and so I put it into my calendar. Every morning – a reminder would pop up at 8:45 reminding me to recognize at least 1 person that day. The bad news is that it took me awhile to make it a habit, I’d hit snooze on the reminder several times during the day when I got busy and by the time I had time, it was time to go home. The good news is that I did eventually make it a habit and I really enjoyed the time I would spend on the floor, talking to reps and giving some verbal recognition. It also helped me to get to know the reps better, and learn all their names! The pluses in my plan were more than I had hoped for.

So this week – Rule #4 – Make the unplanned – planned. Add a daily reminder to your calendar to walk the floor and make someone’s day just a little bit better by acknowledging the work they do. It’s not an easy job and sometimes a little thank you goes a long way.

Feedback or comments: How do you teach your leaders (yourself) to do the daily thank you?

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Should You Stop the Teambuilding Retreat?

An-office-team-mates-drinking-together-in-a-team-building-retreat-

The KnowHR blog has a posted what they titled Good F’ing HR Advice on October 25, 2010. The advice is to skip the teambuilding retreats. What outstanding advice! Think for a moment about the teambuilding retreats you have attended. They can often be filled with dreaded activities and motivating speeches that might spark some immediate motivation, but what happens after the speech. Often, the evenings are filled drinking with fellow participants some of who can kill your motivational buzz in a matter of minutes. And if you make it back to the workplace still riding the high of the event, how long does it take for the pressures of the daily grind to kill your buzz?

While there are numerous reasons why these events fail to show long term results, one of most overlooked is the workplace application. If the purpose of the teambuilding is to form relationships and build collaboration, how is that supported once you return to the workplace and what impact does it have on bottom line? If you want to build collaboration among peers or across work teams and groups, bring them together and give them a workplace problem to solve. If you want to provide them some techniques to learn collaboration and teamwork, provide the usable, applicable techniques then give them an opportunity to apply them in a real world work setting with clear goals and objectives provided for the team to accomplish.

The problem with application is fairly common with many different types of trainings. A few minutes of role play may help demonstrate the techniques taught in a course or in a training session, but if you fail to provide applicable practice in the workplace or fail to provide support after the training, it is sure to fail long term. The challenge is to figure out how to create application and support outside of the training department.

What ideas do you have to create application and support? Your comments are always encouraged!

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com or visit www.sherimazurek.com. Follow me on twitter @Sherimaz.

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4 Actions to Weed Out Resume Builders on Your NGO Board

Female business Professional holding a clipboard with a resume

Sometimes when it is too easy to find board members for your board, you may discover that at least one of those people is using your board membership as a resume builder. Over the years I have come across a few resume builders when putting together NGO boards. These personality types can be a detriment to your board, as they can prevent the board from running effectively.

However, there are actions that you can take to weed out people who are resume builders before they get on your board of directors. These are the actions you can take:

  • Ask the existing board to suggest potential board members – It helps if new board members are already known to an existing board member, because then they can usually attest to the person’s commitment and reliability.
  • Request a resume and references – Inform potential board candidates that you screen all potential board members and then make sure you do. It is best if you ask for at least one person who has worked with them on a board in the past, if they have worked on boards before. Past behaviour is the best gauge for how a person will perform in the future.
  • Develop a set of questions – The Executive Director and Nominating committee should develop two sets of questions. One set to ask of the potential board members references and the other to ask the nominee. Make sure you ask questions about reliability, attendance, ability to work collaboratively, and their preparedness for meetings.
  • Interview the candidate – The Nominating committee for the board and the Executive Director should interview potential board members to be certain that they are on the same page with the current board. That is not to say that a new board member shouldn’t have innovative ideas, but rather that they understand and follow the processes already in place for implementing their ideas.

Question of the Day: What other ways can you suggest to weed out resume builders in potential board candidates?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Nonprofit Capacity Building.

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By Ingrid Zacharias

Envisioning the Future International

http://envisioningthefutureintl.ca/