Wreck the boat or miss the boat?

Posted on July 3rd, 2009 by Michael

Jul

3

What should businesses do in a recession? What decisions should they make about business development? What are the consequences of their decisions? Will they wreck the boat or miss the boat?

This excellent article from The New Yorker is food for thought and discusses these questions >>>

In the late nineteen-twenties, two companies—Kellogg and Post—dominated the market for packaged cereal. It was still a relatively new market: ready-to-eat cereal had been around for decades, but Americans didn’t see it as a real alternative to oatmeal or cream of wheat until the twenties. So, when the Depression hit, no one knew what would happen to consumer demand. Post did the predictable thing: it reined in expenses and cut back on advertising. But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily pushed its new cereal, Rice Krispies. (Snap, Crackle, and Pop first appeared in the thirties.) By 1933, even as the economy cratered, Kellogg’s profits had risen almost thirty per cent and it had become what it remains today: the industry’s dominant player.

•••Click through to the rest of the article …

30 Tips on Word of Mouth

Posted on June 14th, 2009 by Michael

Jun

14

From Canada’s BUZZ CANUCK:

Why is it that some people are listened to while others are ignored?

Why do some ideas people talk about “tip” while others die off?

Photo

As part of our Influencers community project, we added a section called How To Spread Effective Word of Mouth as an Influencer.

We studied the best of from the fields of academic, psychology, word of mouth, marketing and anthropological life and pulled together our list of 30 tips.

•• Click through here for the 30 tips …

US: Where Is the Economy Going?

Posted on May 22nd, 2009 by Michael

May

22

GALLUP:
We’re in the midst of a nerve-wracking period of conflicting information with seemingly endless potentialities and variables. Following any direction without careful thought offers sharp consequences to business leaders and managers.

Right now, many executives’ most pressing questions are: Has the economy reached an inflection point and begun moving in a positive direction? And if not now, when will it?

Confused by all of the mixed signals?

Gallup’s chief economist, an early forecaster of the downturn, tries to clear things up.

••• Click here for the original article …

” … a few good sales calls!”

Posted on May 21st, 2009 by Michael

May

21

Watch this short video clip. It makes a fundamental sales point in an amusing way …

“WORD OF MOUTH: Referrals. Referrals. Referrals.”

Posted on May 21st, 2009 by Michael

May

21

TOPIC #3: “WORD OF MOUTH: How to Replicate Your Satisfied Customers”

• What are the 3 priorities for all leading sales professionals? Referrals. Referrals. Referrals.

• Your customers influence at least ten other people. In any target audience the 10% lead the 90%. There is usually a small group of heavy-hitters who call the shots.

• They may be a handful of trade journalists, a few market-leaders, some early-innovators, an industry spokesperson, a recognised guru or a high profile customer.

• When these people talk the rest of the target audience listens! Every marketing plan should give deliberate thought to how to replicate your satisfied customers.

Download: your instant copy of the book here …

Posted on May 21st, 2009 by Michael

May

21


__________________________________________________________________________

• Download The Book: simply click here.

• Download The Cover: simply click here.

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Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson is Australia’s best-selling author of NewSell. In this third edition entitled, WOMBAT Selling: How to Sell by Word of Mouth he has upgraded previous editions and added ecommerce.

W.O.M.B.A.T = Word Of Mouth Buy And Tell

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Hard copy is available now from Dymocks and Borders and your local bookstore. RRP $24.95 paperback.

For orders of 10 copies or more please contact Keiran Rogers at Hardie Grant Books to receive a bulk order discount.

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What is WOMBAT Selling?

WOMBAT SELLING is a completely rewritten and updated third edition of NewSell published in 2006 (Hardie Grant).

NewSell was first published in New York in 1984 (Boardroom Books) and then in Australia in 1990 (Wrightbooks). It became required reading for any businessperson. It exposed the dirty secret of traditional selling: that we actually have no way of knowing how to close the sale!

WOMBAT SELLING by Michael Hewitt-Gleeson. RRP $24.95.

For further information or to request a review copy or an interview with Michael please email or contact Megan Taylor 03 8520 6444.

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• Download The Book: simply click here.

• Download The Cover: simply click here.

“THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME …”

Posted on May 21st, 2009 by Michael

May

21

TOPIC #4: “There’s Never Been a Better Time … to Use Newsell To Boost Sales”

- Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson is acknowledged as the world authority on newsell.

• Over the years hundreds of studies have been conducted to prove companies should increase sales activity during a recession. Don’t cut your sales activities, increase them. Let your competition cut theirs.

• When you increase your activity, you reassure your customers and buyers can feel they are minimizing risk by doing business with you. Keep your friends. You know who your loyal customers are. Keep in touch with them and let them know what you have to offer. Maintain continuity to sustain awareness.

• Selling works cumulatively so you have to remind people frequently about your brand or they’ll forget you. This is a time to stress quality and value and do it more often than ever before.

Audiences & Events:

- “Newsell: Sales X2” Honda Council of Sales - Honda Dealer Recognition Event. Werribee Mansion, Melbourne.

- “Newsell: There’s Never Been a better time.” TRUenergy Sales Meeting – Southbank, Melbourne

- Bondi - Australian Sports Commission - Club Development & Membership Growth Workshop - “Double Your Membership with Newsell”.

- Melbourne, National Asthma Council Australia - “Branding Strategy”

- Gympie, Queensland - “Leadership Thinking” - ULGA Annual Conference

- Shanghai & Beijing - ClarkMorgan sponsored “Thoughtleader in China” - series of 1-day Masterclasses - “Multiply Your Business By Ten”

Economic Pearl Harbour

Posted on March 11th, 2009 by Michael

Mar

11

THE AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS:
WARREN Buffett says the US economy has “fallen off a cliff”, describing the crisis as “an economic Pearl Harbour”, as concern spread about the US administration’s fitful attempts to halt the collapse of the US banking sector.

The leading investor, an informal adviser to President Barack Obama, whose financial diagnoses are widely respected — although he conceded he failed to predict the severity of the crisis — said the economy had come “close to the worst case” imagined, and that recovery would be slow.

Mr Buffett, one of the wealthiest men in the world, said the entire banking sector had been hours from collapse in September, and would have imploded without the $US700billion ($1trillion) Wall Street emergency bailout.

••Click through to original article…

What is neuro-marketing?

Posted on February 18th, 2009 by Michael

Feb

18

From Martin Lindstrom, author of Buyology:
NeuroMarketing is where science and marketing meet. Buyology bears witness to an historic meeting between neuroscientists and marketing experts, a union that sheds new light on how we make decisions about what we buy — everything from food, to cell phones, to cigarettes, to political candidates — and why.

A research discipline that’s still in its infancy, NeuroMarketing uses high–tech brain scanning techniques, such as fMRI and EEG, to investigate brain activity. This neuro–imaging hardware enables us to examine and analyze what really drives our behavior, our opinions, our preference for Corona over Budweiser, iPods over Zunes, or McDonald’s over Wendy’s.

••• Click through to original article …

Electors are customers, too …

Posted on February 16th, 2009 by Michael

Feb

16

One of the most interesting things about electors is that they are also customers, too.

It was Professor George Gallup, one of the world’s greatest leaders of change, who discovered the power of this strategy and invented market research and the Gallup Poll at Princeton.

Both Kevin Rudd and Barack Obama are well aware of this fact and are deliberately exploiting the power of this insight in the design of their recession solutions.

Prime Minister Rudd is going to gamble 42 billion Australian dollars on this strategy and President Obama will gamble a trillion US dollars on the same strategy.

This will be one of the most remarkable experiments in the history of both governments. The world awaits with breath abated!