Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Keeping Focused in the Summer

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IMG_3573I’m having a hard time coming up with a blog post for this week, and I’m also having a hard time focusing with great weather, and a recent trip down to Oregon. It’s always a challenge to stay focused when the sun shows up in the Pacific Northwest. Yesterday I worked outside at Starbucks for a couple of hours. The window in my office is wide open and I can hear the neighbors and construction going on around me.

So, how do you stay focused in the summer? I haven’t mastered it yet, but I do notice I often wake up earlier in the summer, which means I start working earlier, which means I can finish earlier and go outside. I also take my laptop outside and work. Find a coffee shop, sit on your patio, do what works for you.

How are you staying focused this summer?

Guest Blog: A Visual Sales Strategy

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StrategyLast month at my NWEN workshop- I met Oswald Norton of Executive Coaching NW. He shared this sales strategy tool that helps to visualize and coordinate your sales efforts. I thought it might be helpful for those of you who are more visual!

Creating a strategy for your Authentic Selling Campaign is one way to create a step by step process for a successful outcome. CultureSync, a company focused on cultures that collaborate, taught me how to create strategies using this picture.

I’ve used it so often that whenever I launch a new marketing campaign, I always have it in mind.  It has four essential components: Your outcome, Your assets, Your actions and Pitfalls.

Outcome:

Start with the outcome you want to achieve by the specific date you want to achieve it.  This outcome assumes that you know what you do and is focused on a target market. Example: Your outcome is to increase this quarter’s revenue by 25% over last year’s revenue for the same quarter.

In order to achieve your outcome you need both assets and actions.

Assets:

Assets are defined as anything that you can use to achieve the outcome.  Examples include: your network, your product, your employees, and companies like Yellow Dog Consulting that can help you focus your message, or add marketing tools to your assets.  You may also have assets you want to create that you add to this list as a TBD.

Actions:

Actions are defined as any action that you take to increase your assets.  The goal is to make your assets grow to such an extent that they cause your outcome to be achieved.  Examples: One of your assets is a list of current or former customers you know will need your service(s) in this quarter.  The action is to re-educate them on your services and how your services will aid them in achieving their goals.  You will message them through a marketing campaign that you will launch in time to achieve your outcome by the date you’ve set.  You may also have a target market of potential clients, those that are TBD in the asset column.  Your action is to develop the contact list of these potential clients.

Pitfalls:

Pitfalls happen any time that you allow yourself to get distracted from the actions you’re taking to create more assets. It can be anything from focusing on a great new market, to allowing yourself to believe you’ll never achieve success.  The trick is to recognize a pitfall and create an action to get you back on track.

I train teams to use this tool to accomplish both small and large projects.  If I can help you strategize, I hope you’ll contact me at Executive Coaching NW.

is your email address costing you?

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One of my clients has a couple of team members who STILL use an AOL email address. Others use Gmail but none were using an @company email when I was hired.

A few years ago at PSBJ I taught a workshop with a resume coach. One thing she said was that if you have an AOL email address on your resume, she’s probably going to stop reading your resume. SERIOUSLY. We judge people based on their email address. Don’t lie, you do it too. Sure you’re a better person than me, most people are. When your job hunting have a REAL email address. firstname.lastname@XYZ.com is ideal, or some combo of that-my personal email has my middle initial in it. If you work for a company, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be using an @company email address.

As a company owner here’s WHY you need to have employees using a company email address:

1. They quit and take all your clients with their gmail account

2. They DIE and no one knows their email PW (it happens, you never know)

3. If I contact a company via their website and yourmom85@aol.com replies to me, I’m going to take my business to mom@company.com.

4. they die and no one knows who to contact to get access to their email account

You don’t think it’s costing you business, but you’d be surprised at how petty people are. It’s unprofessional, trust me.

My client is now transitioning to company email accounts, but it’s a much slower process than expected, and I have one person who’s refusing and bothered I’m asking them to look professional. It’s an uphill battle, so start off your company on the right foot.