Category: Sales Management

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Harvey Mackay’s Awesome New Book, Use Your Head To Get Your Foot In The Door

Person reading a book

What surprised me most when I met Harvey Mackay this past weekend at the 2010 21st Century Book Marketing event? He’s kind. He’s funny. He’s REAL.

Harvey (shunning “Mr. Mackay”, he insisted on “Harvey”), has authored business best-sellers that have been translated into 37 languages and sold over 10 million copies in 80 countries. His first book, Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive was a groundbreaking New York Times #1 best seller for 54 weeks.

Harvey stood right there next to me, smiling and cracking jokes while my friend tried again and again to get the camera lighting just right. It took four shots. Harvey was as gracious as could be.

That’s the kind of human interest he injects in his books. No wonder he’s so popular. Harvey knows how to connect with people. So of course his latest book is on topic and in demand.

How to Market Yourself for Your Best Career Move

Recently released, Use Your Head To Get Your Foot In The Door, offers much-needed motivation and practical advice for networking and selling yourself for that perfect next job. He doesn’t teach you how to write your resume – many other books do that enormously well.

With unemployment high and the perfect job seemingly out of reach, this book is invaluable for your soul. It infuses encouragement with humor and sound bites that will keep you emailing, dialing, knocking, and smiling;

  • “Don’t get dejected if you’ve been rejected – just get your new you perfected!”
  • “Remember the purpose of the resume. It’s to enable you to resume work.”
  • “You may not be interviewing for a sales job, but you have to be a great salesperson to sell yourself.”

Click here to buy Harvey’s book:

Sample Use Your Head To Get Your Foot In The Door

He also offers iTunes Podcast Previews. Harvey believes in giving – so enjoy!

What are your favorite Harvey Mackay quotes?

(Special thanks to Harvey and www.HarveyMackay.com

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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 in bookstores and online November 24, 2010. 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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Your Best Elevator Pitch

Simple Steps to Create a Dynamic Marketing Message

How do you cut through the sheer marketing clutter and make your mark on your prospects’ minds? Create one distinct, memorable message that you use at every opportunity.

Core Marketing Message

Every business needs to distill their message down to an effective core marketing message that each employee can deliver comfortably at a cocktail party, and becomes the foundational message in company literature, videos; essentially, all advertising or promotion. It is also called your elevator pitch, and it focuses on solving your customers’ pain or problem.

Info You Need to Prepare to Develop Your Elevator Pitch

You can spend days or even weeks in this process, but we’re going to make it really easy for you. To get right down to the point, first answer these questions – IN WRITING:

  1. Profile your ideal target customer/customer. Include demographics and lifestyle choices.
  2. What PROBLEM, PAIN, or challenge does this target customer face?
  3. What SOLUTION does your product or service deliver for this problem or pain?
  4. What PROOF do you have, such as a customer success story?
  5. What makes you different from your competition? (It MUST be a difference that matters to your customer.

How to Develop Your Elevator Pitch

REMEMBER THIS: DO NOT start talking about your product or service and what you do. Read that sentence again. INSTEAD, start talking about your customers and how you help solve their problem and ease their pain.

Imagine that you’re asked, “What do you do?” Here’s how to respond:

  1. Start with who you work with; “I work with small business owners and entrepreneurs…”
  2. Continue by telling about their pain or problem; “…who need help taking their business to the next level…”
  3. PAUSE. WAIT FOR A QUESTION OR RESPONSE.
  4. Tell them about a customer you’ve worked with and the results you achieved; “…For example, I’ve worked with a 5 year old family business that needed a business plan to raise money for expansion…”
  5. This could lead to more conversation about problems & solutions.
  6. Tell them your solution and what makes you different; “…we get very good results, and have been told by venture capital investors that our plans are among the best they’ve ever seen.”

Now you have opened the conversation to focus on problems, and even if they can’t benefit, they may know someone who can!

This approach is a natural to develop the company’s core marketing message for all advertising and promotion. We’ll cover that in a later post.

What’s YOUR elevator pitch?

(Thanks to Action Plan Marketing for the concept and inspiration.)

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

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her customers 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