Biznology

Photo credit: Search Engine People Blog

I definitely had a problem. I had signed to do a corporate training session on search marketing. As I often do, I spent time on the phone with the event organizer and several of the attendees before the session, so that I would understand what the organizational problems were. That way, I know what the participants know and what they don’t know, and I can tailor the information to their actual level of knowledge. I can also customize the topics to address the real problems that they face instead of a “once over lightly on everything.” But I ran into a problem. This team knew zero about analytics and they were adamant that they wanted to stay that way. Yeah, I definitely had a problem. Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: s_falkow

For those of you who have never been in sales, I would like to take you through a sales process (or some aspects of one) from the sales representative’s point of view. In sales, we are trained to look at situations as if we were sitting in the prospect’s chair. The reason for that is that it makes it easier for a sales person to recognize what is REALLY important to the prospect. You see, really awful sales reps will simply spout off what they are selling, assuming it is exactly what the prospect needs in the exact way they present it. If a sales rep ever does that to you, you have my permission as a member of the society of salespeople to unceremoniously kick their sorry butt out of your office. (By the way, that society doesn’t really exist as far as I know but we are a collegial bunch nonetheless and like to look out for each other, because one bad sales rep’s reputation makes it harder for the good ones in the future.) Read the remainder of this entry »

Image by Pete Prodoehl via Flickr

Large companies have been employing direct marketing principles for their digital marketing tactics for a long time, but what about smaller businesses? By tracking your marketing tactics, you then know which ones are working, which ones aren’t, and more importantly, how much money and time you ought to spend on each one. If you think that you need to be a technical wizard or have a huge wallet to track your phone sales, check out my latest post on Search Engine Guide, “How do you track phone sales from search?”

Photo credit: Wikipedia

I recently got a question from a company with a problem. They have a history of not-so-sterling treatment of customers during the sales process (think used-car dealer approach), which they’ve used throughout the history of the company. For years, the company has been successful, despite customer complaints, but now they are running into a snag. The company’s online reputation is not good, and they are worried that it is starting to affect their sales. They asked if I could help them eliminate the negative results that are popping up about them in search.

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

We all get paid to sell our products. The best sales advice used to be “Always Be Closing” but that’s not always true in Internet marketing. Too often, we’ve become so focused on selling our product right at that moment—Buy Now! 70% off!— that we sound more like carnival barkers than people truly interested in solving our customer’s problems. (And guess which approach works better with customers on the Internet.) To see how to re-orient your thinking to use search marketing in the most optimal way, check out my latest post on Search Engine Guide, “Stop Selling Your Products!”