Listen to the radio show replays:

Monday, May 13, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Is It A Business Crisis Or An Opportunity?

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

What’s Your Online & Offline Business Reputation?

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Wednesday Edition

David Newman: Marketing Ideas To Boost Sales And Profits

To read David’s guest blog post, 21 Killer Sales Questions To Boost Your Confidence And Close Any Deal Faster, click here.

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Thursday, May 16, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Has The Cost Of Your Business Increased In 2013?

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Friday, May 17, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

In Business, Do You Need To Be An Expert In Everything?

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Let me know what your favorite show(s) were this week and why. And if you have a business question, topic or book that you’d like considered for the radio show, just let me know in the comments.

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

21 Killer Sales Questions To Boost Your Confidence And Close Any Deal Faster

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, my clients often ask me for advice on sales. Naturally, this makes a ton of sense because the MORE and BETTER marketing you do, the FASTER and EASIER your sales process becomes.

BUT…
Nothing frustrates me more than when my clients DO a lot of the great marketing we work on together ONLY TO BLOW IT during the sales process!
So… don’t let this happen to YOU.
Let’s talk about what you need to close the deal: the steps you need to get from the first solid marketing conversation to the final signed contract.
Depending on your particular business, this could take anywhere from 10 days from first contact all the way up to a year or more. The sales process can be a long and winding road.

And along the way, it’s all too easy to lose confidence, let your resolve and motivation slip, and eventually lose control of the sales process – which ends up in chasing the prospect, unanswered emails and phone messages, mounting frustration for you and your sales manager, and a sales pipeline that is gummed up worse than an Alaskan oil spill.
BUT there are several factors totally within your control that make your sales process go faster and easier – and some of these can even get you unstuck, unstalled, and moving again for sales opportunities that you had long given up on.

The most important factor within your control – by far – is asking smart questions early and often.
Think about it: delays in your sales process come from one main source…
Surprises.
You don’t want surprises on their end – and they don’t like surprises on your end.

Each surprise or question or unexpected element can add anywhere from a week to a month to your sales process – and you don’t want that.
Understanding this, you’ll want to ask your prospects some key selling questions early on in your conversations and throughout at every major step and milestone.

The questions you’re about to get are not your typical “sales robot” questions that your prospects have heard a million times – totally inept and inappropriate questions like “What keeps you up at night?” “What would it take to earn your business” and others of that stripe.

Rather, these are smart questions – they are process questions – they ask about your prospect’s real-world buying process. What’s important to them? Who are the players? What’s their buying culture? What will raise red flags? What ammunition will they need from you to make the whole internal political sales process go faster, smoother, and easier? Questions that get to the heart of the one thing that matters most: How do they BUY?
Let’s cover them together now so you can begin using these 21 killer sales questions to close more deals – more easily and more often. This will boost your confidence, restore your motivation – and help you get your sales mojo back!

1.    If you were to decide this is a good idea, how do you buy things like this?

2.    How do you implement?

3.    What should I know about your timing? Signoffs?

4.    When do you budget for things like this?

5.    Do you think this deal is going to work?

6.    What’s missing or what should we add?

7.    Are you going to pitch it?

8.    What else do you need to see from me?

9.    Can I help you put together some numbers?

10. Do you have some numbers I could include?

11. Who else besides you will be making this decision?

12. Are “they” going to like it?

13. WHAT are they going to like?

14. WHAT are they going to push back on?

15. What else is going to be in our way?

16. How would YOU respond to that?

17. What answers do you need from me to so you’re prepared to answer their questions?

18. How much detail do YOU want?

19. How much detail will THEY want?

20. Are there any surprises we should be prepared for?

21. If this were just you and me, how excited would you be to move ahead on a scale of 0-10?
Hint: If they answer 9 or 10 – you’re good; If they answer 7 or 8 – ask, “What would need to change to get us closer to 10?” If they answer 6 or less, you have a problem. Go for no with “I don’t think we can make this work. Do you?”

Bonus idea: Dan Pink, author of To Sell is Human, offers the following pair of “irrational questions” to help you overcome a negative response at any point in your sales process and sell more effectively:

1. “How ready are you to [take the desired action], on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means not ready at all and 10 means totally ready?”
2. Next, ask your prospect, “Why didn’t you pick a lower (yes, lower) number?”

This will get them to reveal all the reasons buying your product or service might not be such a terrible idea after all. And you’re back in the conversation. Brilliant!
Be relentless and follow up like a friendly bulldog.
Never let an active prospect get more than 10 days away from you.
Always show up in their world like a happy squeaky wheel: Circle back. Send more value. Ask more questions. Offer more engagement. Invite further dialogue. Come back with more ideas to genuinely help them.

More and better and faster sales will follow.
I guarantee it.

David Newman is a marketing expert, professional speaker and founder of Do It! Marketing, a marketing strategy firm dedicated to making thought-leading entrepreneurs and executives more successful. David’s book, Do It! Marketing: 77 Instant-Action Ideas to Boost Sales, Maximize Profits, and Crush Your Competition is available at http://bit.ly/doitbook. Free resources are available online at www.doitmarketing.com. Contact David directly at david@doitmarketing.com or call (610) 716-5984.

Monday, May 6, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

In Business, Knowledge Is Power… Or Is It?

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

How Do You Keep Your Business Mind Sharp?

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Wednesday Edition

Gabe Zichermann: The Gamification Revolution

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

To read Gabe’s guest blog post on The Gamfication Revolution, click here.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Grit Is The Answer To Business Success

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Friday, May 10, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Break The Mold With Your Business

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Howard’s blog post this week:

Business Success Is A Game Of Inches

To read the post, click here.

As you’re reading this, if you happen to have a ruler close by, take a look at it because today we are going to talk about inches. When you think about it an inch is a really small measurement. Other than when we measure our waistlines, are measuring to remodel the house or watching how fast our children are growing up, we probably never think much about how important an inch can be.

Usually, people tend to talk about the big numbers. Such as how far away from planet Earth the edge of the Universe is – which is over 13 billion light years away! That’s a lot of inches! Difficult to perceive but it’s further than your trip to the local grocery store, isn’t it? Or what seemed like such a long drive to the beach or the mountains every summer vacation as a child. Or a football player running 100 yards for a touchdown. Or a cross country airplane trip from New York to California.

Perhaps you play golf, or know someone who plays golf. Golf is a game of inches. I am always amazed at what the pro-golfers can do when it comes down to a matter of inches to win a tournament. The goal is to get to the putting green on each round of golf played. Tournaments are often won or lost by how well the golfers can putt on a particular day. The golfers get to the putting green, take their time assessing the next move, then hit the ball one way to have it go another way because they look at the slope and condition of the ground, the way the grass is growing in order to best know how the ball may roll. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are on the line all depending on how close the ball can get to and into the cup. It’s a matter of inches – and sometimes, even just a fraction of an inch between the winner and loser.

It’s the same in business. Business success is a game of inches. The inches are translated into the details. It’s the extra effort you put into your work each day. It’s the extra time you spend to “get it right”. It’s when you listen to someone who’s had a bad day. It’s simply remembering to say “thank you”. It’s those early mornings and late nights working on something you really believe in. It’s when something you’ve been working on all falls together. Inch by inch.

But in business, inches don’t always translate into the positive. Sometimes it’s about paying attention to the subtle changes that take place over time that lead to not so positive results. Often you hear business people say things like, “Gee, how did that happen?” It’s about inches. Pay attention. Watch for the subtle signs. Inch by inch.

When Sam Walton was alive he had his own airplane and would fly to visit the Wal-Mart store locations. He always flew directly over the store because he liked to see how full the parking lot was. If the parking lot was not full enough he would want to know why. When he walked into the store, Sam paid attention to the details. Store personnel and management paid attention during Sam’s visit because they knew if it wasn’t right they were going to hear about it. It’s about how the inches add up. How a 12 inch ruler can quickly become a 3 foot yardstick of either failure or success.

In business, those inches add up and can make a difference. Make sure it’s a productive, profitable difference.

Start today. Take a look around. It’s not about being a perfectionist. It’s about how the little things add up to big results and to big success.

Listen to Gabe Zichermann talk with Howard about The Gamification Revolution:

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

The Gamification Revolution by Gabe Zichermann

When my first book, Game-Based Marketing was being picked up by its publisher in 2009, I tried to convince them that the right concept was a business strategy title. The original idea was called The Serious Business of Games, and was meant to look at a wide range of ways that games intersected with industry.  As a result of the global financial crisis and the unproven nature of the discussion, they wanted something more focused. Of course, this was before the term gamification had come into common use and before the rise of Foursquare or Zynga. In short, the idea that combining game design with business could be a strategy was a little ahead of its time.

That time has come.

I’m pleased to announce the arrival of my third book, The Gamification Revolution – a look at how organizations of all sizes and stripes are crushing the competition with engagement science (and how you can too). We analyzed hundreds of case studies, design patterns and interviews with key experts to distill the most exciting concepts down into clear actionable ideas that you can use in your organization. We include approaches that are both high-tech and low-tech, across the arcs of Corporate, HR/Enterprise and Marketing strategy.

If gamification and engagement science are new to your organization, you’ll find a coherent vision for how you can make it core to your operating plan. Even if you’re a gamification expert, The Gamification Revolution is filled with analysis, insight and examples that deliver a fresh take on how to approach this exciting opportunity.

And approach it you must.

One thing that I learned in the process of researching, writing and editing this book is that gamification is quickly transitioning from a nice-to-have marketing/HR boost into a competitive bludgeon. Companies that understand how to engage consumers and employees are raising their interaction rates by an average of 30%, scaling loyalty at a fraction of its traditional cost, selling more product and hiring, training and retaining the best employees using this new approach. In short, they are building engagement into a sustainable competitive advantage — sometimes even turning their know-how into a profit center.

So the timing for The Gamification Revolution couldn’t have been better. As the millennial generation grows up, and as gamification becomes ever more widespread, your organization will need to understand these strategies to compete and win. And, for the first time, there is a roadmap.

Because it’s 2013, there’s also a conversation.

I’m also pleased to announce that The Gamification Revolution ships with the first-ever social reading app powered by gamification – ReadSocial.

Dopamine built it from the ground up to make it easy to track, share and interact around the best content in the book. Whether you’re reading it with your workgroup, friends or alone — and regardless of platform — you can use ReadSocial to highlight the best ideas, share and discuss them with others, access twitter and web resources and have fun with the book. As you complete the chapter-based challenges, you can even unlock special bonus content and prizes.

And if the platform-agnostic app doesn’t float your boat, the book itself comes with puzzles and quests you can complete to deepen your understanding of the concept — all from the comfort of your paper pages.

So check out The Gamification Revolution today, and access its companion app, ReadSocial. Learn how companies just like yours are transforming their strategic, HR/Enterprise and Marketing initiatives with engagement science — and how you can leverage their insights to grow your career, crush the competition and have fun doing it.

Gabe Zichermann is the chair of GSummit where top gamification experts across industries gather to share knowledge and insight about customer & employee engagement and loyalty. He is also an author, highly rated public speaker and entrepreneur whose book, The Gamification Revolution (McGraw Hill, 2013) looks at how leaders are leveraging gamification strategy to crush the competition. His previous books, Gamification by Design (2011) and Game-Based Marketing (2010) have helped define the industry’s standards and frameworks, and continue to be key reference materials today. Gabe resides in New York City, where he is co-director of startup accelerator The Founder Institute, and a board member of StartOut.org. 

Monday, April 29, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Why Would Anyone Hire Your Company?

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The Wednesday Edition

Mark Schaefer: Blogging For Business Success

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Is It Time To Review Your Employees?

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

Friday, May 3, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Don’t Chase Sales Volume. Create Profit.

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

Howard’s blog post this week:

How To Determine Your Competitive Business Advantage

To read Howard’s post, click here.

As a CEO, president or business owner, we do a lot of talking, don’t we? We talk to each other; we talk to customers, employees; we talk with experts such as consultants, attorneys and accountants. And you know, sometimes it may just feel like people are lecturing us all the time. Sometimes as businesspeople we just get so tired of hearing: Did you write a business plan? Do you have a business plan? If you don’t have a business plan, you have to write a business plan.

Well, of course, having a plan is very important and if you’re a regular reader here on this blog or listen to my radio shows, you know my philosophy on business plans. What you want to have is an outline, a two or three page outline that you’re constantly looking at and updating. But there is a step missing when we talk about the business plan.

The question is: How do you develop a competitive business advantage over your competition?

If you don’t think that question through; if you’re not thinking about the competitive business advantage that you have, then how in the world is it possible for you to write a business plan, because you don’t know what you’re writing?

You’re not writing a business plan as an exercise for busy work. You’re not doing it to make someone else happy. You’re doing it to have flow in your business. You’re doing it to put yourself in a position of understanding what needs to be done to make a profit.

To develop a competitive business edge there are two questions that you want to ask yourself.

The first question is: What is my company good at? What do we do that we do better than anybody else?

The second question is: Why do our customers buy from us?

Now, those aren’t business questions that you can take lightly. You have to really, really think about it. You need to talk to your sales force, your customer service department plus other people that you work with, there are customers that you’ve known a long time and maybe even professionally socialize with, that you can turn to and say:

• What do you think we’re best at?
• What do you think are our advantages over the competition?
• Why do you buy from us?

We need to know what our goals, our objectives, our visions are before we write the business plan, because if we’re just going off and doing this exercise without any information whatsoever, it’s pointless.  Not only is it pointless it’s worse than that – it’s wasting time. The one thing that we don’t have is time to waste.

Every business day stands upon itself. People will say to me: I want to make a million dollars this year. And I’ll say: Okay, that’s good! I like that goal. Can you tell me how much that is per month? And the answer is usually that they don’t know. And then I’ll say: How much is that per week? How much is that per day? How much do you have to bring in per hour, per person that works for you in order to make that million dollar goal?

If you break things down into the simplest possible form, then you really get the answers you need.

That’s why I’m asking you to consider these two questions:

1)      What is my company good at?

2)      Why do my customers buy from me?

Because when we know that, we can structure not only our business plan and our sales plan and our marketing plan, but we can also take all of our marketing materials and we can focus them in that same direction.

There’s another thing here that we have to consider that’s very important. If there’s something we’re not good at, if there’s some reason that our customers aren’t buying from us, we want to know, don’t we? Why do we want to know?

• Because we want to make it better than it already is.
• Because we want to become the best at what we do.
• Because we don’t want to have a struggle when we’re trying to sell someone because we’re pushing something on them.
• We want customers to buy from us because we can serve them well; we can help them.

So if we don’t know the answer to what’s good about our business, then we certainly don’t know the answer to what’s keeping us from doing business. We want to find out both of those answers so there is a balance to the overall picture of the business.

To accomplish this, here is what I suggest: Sit down, take a blank piece of paper or a blank page on your computer screen and work it through. See what you come up with first. Then start talking to people. Not only start talking, but start observing. Start observing what’s going on. Listen to how your employees are talking to your customers. Ride with your salespeople, read your marketing materials like you are the potential customer, like you’re the one buying. Give your marketing materials to someone else to read – it might be a friend whose opinion you respect, and say to them: What do you see here? Tell me what you get from this. Get an objective point of view about your business to give you that competition business advantage.

Listen to internet radio with Howard Lewinter on BlogTalkRadio

Mark is among the most acclaimed and accomplished marketing consultants in America, with a special emphasis in social media marketing. In addition to his latest book, he is the author of two bestselling marketing books, The Tao Of Twitter and Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power Of Klout, Social Scoring And Influence Marketing. (Mark visited the radio show in July 2012 to discuss both books. You can listen to the replay here.)

Mark’s blog, {grow}, is one of the top marketing blogs of the world. It is one of the few blogs consistently followed and read in my office. Mark states on the right side of his blog: “…you’re in marketing for one reason: Grow. Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself.”

Mark Schaefer has 30 years of global sales and marketing experience. A career highlight for Mark was studying under Peter Drucker. (Which he talks about during our July 2012 conversation.)

With extensive experience in sales, marketing, eCommerce, social media, creative services and marketing communications, Mark is a globally-recognized business writer, university lecturer, and innovator, receiving seven international patents for new product ideas with Fortune 100 companies.

He is a marketing faculty member at Rutgers University and has been a keynote speaker at major conferences.  Mark is also the founder of Social Slam, which brings together some of the brightest minds in social media today, to an annual gathering in Knoxville, TN, which is also where Mark resides when he isn’t traveling.

Put a reminder on your calendar to listen in on Wednesday to hear what Mark has to say about marketing, social media and his new book, Born To Blog. Or listen to the replay of the show which will be posted at the top of this blog post on Wednesday afternoon. Blogging is a marketing strategy every company should consider doing consistently so this is a show you’ll definitely want to listen to.

Monday, April 22, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Does Your Business Tell A Story?

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

How To Develop A Competitive Business Advantage

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Wednesday Edition

Chris Westfall: The NEW Elevator Pitch

To read Chris’ guest blog post, The NEW Elevator Pitch Demands CLARITY, click here.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

Responsibility In Business

Friday, April 26, 2013

5 Minute Business Strategy

How Strong Is Your Business Team?

To listen to any of the radio shows on Talk Business With Howard, just go to the show page on Blog Talk Radio. Or you can listen on iTunes.

Thanks for listening to Talk Business With Howard Radio! What tips from the radio show have you incorporated into your business? Let me know! Have a business question? Let me know!

The NEW Elevator Pitch Demands CLARITY by Chris Westfall

What makes a great elevator pitch?

You may have heard strategies in the past, for taking a prosperous elevator ride.  But today, the elevator platform has been replaced with the social platform.  And, if you’re still delivering yesterday’s strategy when it comes time to tell your story, you’ll never be heard above the noise.

The NEW Elevator Pitch isn’t really a “pitch” at all – it’s a conversation.  A persuasive and concise conversation that inspires action, for an important audience.  Traditionally, the elevator pitch is a way to introduce a person, product or idea in two minutes or less.  But the way that we communicate has changed.  Maybe it’s time to change your story as well – or at least the way you tell it.

You see, the story you tell will teach people how to buy from you, how to reward your effort, how to promote you and how to invest in your ideas.   Whether you tweet it or tell it, you have to have a story that’s concise and clear – otherwise, it’s lost in the noise.

The best elevator pitch you (or anyone else) can possibly deliver will focus on the most important person in the room (your listener).  The best elevator speech will have the following three characteristics:

1. Authentic –Being authentic means speaking from the heart in a way that registers as true, honest and sincere.

Because the most captivating thing you can say is what you believe.

Finding your truth, and expressing it, is a central theme of the NEW Elevator Pitch. When you are at your most authentic, you are connected with your subject matter.  You speak in a way that is your most natural and confident, avoiding the common speaker contortions that will keep your listener focused …on your fidgeting.

It’s easy to come up with goofy one-liners, followed by a memorized list of features and benefits, but that’s yesterday’s news (or maybe, yesterday’s mistakes.  Those mistakes are best left in the past.)  If you think the best way to start your elevator pitch is with you name, rank and serial number, you’re making a mistake.  Follow that misstep with a feature-dump, and you’ve let your listener know that you don’t know what you’re doing.  It’s time to stop pitching, and start connecting.  Those real connections start with authentic communication.

Discussing your true convictions, in a way that seems unrehearsed and confident at the same time:  THAT’S authenticity.

1. Compelling –Meaningful change is only meaningful if your message is compelling.  Your words, your actions and your gestures can mean the difference between a mess, and “YES!”

Nobody wants to give a pitch, just so that others can remain indifferent. There’s enough noise online already.  Make up your mind to create something that inspires. The NEW Elevator Pitch is about influence.  This message delivers a call to action.  Are you clear about what you want, what you can deliver, and what you want your listener to do when you’re done? Considering what you want others to do or say next is the key to developing your strongest possible elevator pitch. Aligning your capabilities with a compelling message is the power behind your communication.

1. “Tell Me More…” Judge the quality of your elevator pitch not by the quality of your diction, or your gestures, but on what people do when you are done.   Focus your attention on what’s most important:  connecting with your audience.

When someone says, “Tell Me More…” that means that they are interested.  It means that they clicked through to your blog.  They read the report you referenced and watched that video; now it’s time to provide your insight, in person.  It’s time for “Tell Me More…” Find out what your listener wants to know more about, and you have started the dialogue that is the foundation of the social space. Remember, no tweet or Facebook status tells your whole story.  Neither does your elevator pitch.  But it should be told in such a way that your listener takes the next logical step – moving from indifference, to action, by way of curiosity.

Authentic. Compelling. Tell me more . . . These building blocks are the foundation of CLARITY.  Clarity is the seven-step acronym, outlined in The NEW Elevator Pitch.   Find out how to Captivate, use the Language of leadership, speak with Authenticity, Relevance and Tact, on your way to “YES!”  That’s the map – and the destination – you will find in The NEW Elevator Pitch (http://bit.ly/thenewelevatorpitch)

Chris Westfall is the national elevator pitch champion, and the author of The NEW Elevator Pitch.  He has appeared on CNN, ABC-NEWS, NBC-TV, and in The New York Post.  He’s coached clients on Dragon’s Den, and helped secure multi-million dollar revenues and investments for a variety of organizations. Serving as a coach and consultant, he’s worked with Cisco, RE/MAX, Unilever, HP, and dozens of other Fortune 1000 companies.  An award-winning MBA instructor at a top-20 business school, he is widely recognized as an expert on marketing, branding and leadership – with an international coaching clientele.  His keynote, Secrets of the NEW Elevator Pitch, helps companies to create a story that’s captivating and concise – leading to new revenues, new partnerships, and new investments.