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CRM Company Consults On Relationships

Friday, March 19th, 2010

CRM Company Consults On Relationships

How can a CRM company and marketing business consultant help you better organize and manage relationships?

CRM company founder shares tips by using a system for business and relationship management.

I hear a lot of whining from business people these days.  Actually, people in general.  It’s always something.  The economy, the health care bill, slow sales or no sales, stupid customers, dishonest employees, no capital, etc.  If you are in business for yourself please realize that you are in the unique to position to create significant wealth.  Which means that we all need to focus more on better managing our business and personal relationships.

It’s safe to say that when it comes to what matters most these days to busy business owners and professionals is time.  No.  We can’t actually make time.  But a good CRM company or consultant can help you get super organized and on top of managing relationships.

If you care to do what counts the most for your business, which is focus on the disciplines of business development, then maybe you’re ready to talk to a new CRM company or consultant.  What do you want from a CRM company? What is your current CRM company missing?  You CRM company will deliver the most appropriate system for you and your team because they have years of experience using and consulting on a tons of various CRM company systems and solutions.

What CRM company and system is the best for you?  If you’re busy building your business there should be no time or room for whining about relationships and not having the time to do what matters most.  Any self respecting CRM company or advisor will tell you that managing and organizing your relationships, both personal and business, is the first place to start when working to increase productivity, sales and business results.  There is only time for doing what matters most.  Like selling and marketing.  Like keeping up on your CRM company system.  Like being a great leader for your team.  Like leveraging technology.  Building your list.  The list goes on and on.

Speaking of lists… One way we can always tell if a business owner is disciplined about growing their business is by analyzing their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.  Or their list of clients, prospects, and leads.  Looking under the hood so to speak tells me a lot about the business owner and the business.  Because it’s a core discipline for business development.  Adding new contacts so your list is growing.  Making consistent contact by phone and email.  Keeping records of conversations, people, and developments as you build relationships.  There’s more to including the system or software itself.

If you’re not disciplined about your CRM, then you probably shouldn’t expect much in the way of achieving better sales or business results.  (Yes, you.  The one still using Excel spreadsheets or Outlook thinking that it works fine just because it’s installed and you know to use it.)  It’s more like of a “what are you possibly thinking?” kind of thing.) Because it’s the least disciplined business owners I meet you tend to complain the most.  And if your current CRM company and system isn’t being run well chances are there are tons of issues with your business.  It’s just one of my many litmus tests for discipline related to business development.

I recently worked with a fairly successful company in business for 16 years. They have a great system for CRM company management and reporting.  The problem is no one was really using it because no one planned to integrate the tools that the CRM company had to offer. The owners assumed that her people would simply learn what the CRM company offered over time.  The CRM company owner is always faced with the task of getting their clients to focus on what counts the most.  The “implementation gap” couldn’t more apparent when it comes to your CRM company.  Bogus contact information is toxic to the system.  Incomplete records are the norm.  In most cases you’re dealing with uutdated email addresses or no email addresses for the people in the system.  There some absolutely moronic business leads and prospects in the system.  (Completely inappropriate because they hadn’t done much work identifying their ideal client, prospect or lead.)   There is no consistent email marketing communications.  And the website isn’t quite yet optimized for conversions, sales and list building.

Needless to say there are way too many business owners who do not embrace a top-down driven sales culture.  Company culture is an important consideration for the long-term success of any business.  But what we are addressing here is a culture in which there is not enough sales, cash flow or new business.  Ouch.  And it ties to their core disciplines, or lack thereof, related to sales and marketing.  Working with the right CRM company puts you into a proactive, planning mindset.

Here’s what it takes to implement a great CRM company solution.  With a CRM company like our leading the process it’s much easier for the business owner, typically not a marketing or Internet marketing, CRM kind of person, to get organized around an easy to learn and use process.

1. A burning desire to better organize relationships.

2. An understanding the your NETWORK impacts your NET WORTH.

3. A simple, online system to login into every day.

4. A single, integrated system to manage people, email, calendar, tasks, and more.

If you’re living with the same old system of business card piles, post it notes, and maybe even a spreadsheet or two, maybe it’s time you talked with an experience CRM company advisor and marketing consultant who can help you explore what will best fit your needs.

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Posted in Business Coaching, Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM), Growing People, Marketing | No Comments »

What To Do When Your Webmaster Wigs Out

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

We hear this all the time. “We were working with this website guy/girl/person and they said they’d have our site done by DATE. But he/she/it didn’t deliver and now we’re three months behind and not sure what to do.”

So the short answer is, “Hire a real firm.” If you really want to make an impact on your internet marketing strategy then it’s essential to work with a firm that will help you first at a strategic level. Of course, once your strategy and purpose for the website is clearly defined, the overall professional website design and functionality should be completed on time meeting all your objectives and expectations.

We acquired a recent project and this is exactly what happened. The client got a great proposal. But they never delivered. And so here was the client, literally months behind schedule and not sure what to do.

The solution is to hire a firm with a team and proven track record over one person who professes they can do a good job for you. At WealthNet, like many other firms in the business, we have a team of dedicated people who not only design well, but deliver on time, as promised in our Services Agreements. If for some unforeseen reason one of our people can’t make it work or falls behind, someone on the team will pick up the slack. Another level of reassurance you will get the job done on time and meet your expectations.

“Services Agreements? We never got one of those when our first webmaster started our project.” Ooops. Big mistake. Always get a detailed services agreement including a site map, addendum that details the deliverables, time line, fee structure, and terms that protect your intellectual property.

If you have a professional website design or optimization project and you’re not sure who to hire, be sure to hire a real firm that offers a team of professionals to help you. Make sure you get a detailed agreement and that you understand how the agreement protects you if something goes wrong.

Don’t let a webmaster wig out and leave you hanging. Working with an established firm offering you a team of people assures you of getting your project done on time. There are other considerations as well that you should discuss with your website design firm. Top search engine placement is something virtually all of our clients want. They expect the site to reflect professional copy writing. Clients can assume when working with us that their site will generate more leads. And of course, as more leads are generated, our clients expect assistance with affecting a better lead conversion rate and that our work helps them close more sales.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona

http://twitter.com/WealthNetTeam

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Posted in Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »

What We Can Learn from Jeff Bezos About Branding

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person.
You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”

-Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com

What exactly is brand? At WealthNet we define brand as the aggregate of how the market perceives, associates and relates to you, your people and your business. We often think of brand as it relates only to big business. But when you think about it, you as a person have a brand too. Your personal brand could best be described as your reputation. Which is based on how people perceive you to be.

Okay, so it’s tough out there right now. But there’s still market share you don’t have. So what are you doing to enhance your brand, your marketing campaigns and your direct sales efforts? We hear every day that money is tight and times are tough. We get it. But if you still want to grow your business it’s critical to maintain the right mindset and invest in branding and marketing that gets the best results.

Much of your competition is singing the blues. I meet this kind of entrepreneur every day in our marketing and networking efforts. You know the mindset I’m talking about. People who let the economic news of the day affect their thinking and behavior when it comes to marketing. People who are afraid to invest more money and creativity to build a better brand and market with purpose. People who may not care enough to create and deliver solutions that make their customers’ lives or businesses better. People who let fear keep them from starting their own business or launching a new campaign, product, service or division. That’s right. Doing the hard things well can be scary. So what.

I also meet all sorts of high energy and positive thinking entrepreneurs every day. I prefer working with people who think and act in a positive way. Birds of a feather… I find that modeling my thinking and behavior around successful people is a great way to be successful. In this regard, what can we all do to model successful people like Jeff Bezos? Do you think Jeff was worried about what the economy was doing in 1994 when he founded Amazon.com? Did a 6.1% unemployment rate stop him? Did restraints in the capital markets slow him down? Did he wonder what the S&P 500 might do? I don’t think so.

Jeff Bezos launched his on-line bookstore in 1995 and the rest is history. He created a brand around the phenomenon called the Internet. He positioned himself to become a market leader. He attracted capital because of who he is and how he conveyed his vision and passion to sell books online. He made buying books, and tons of other products, easy. And Amazon does things very, very well. What an amazing company and brand.

When it comes to building your brand and growing your business, don’t let anything get in your way. These days people complain about poor cash flow and not having enough money to market their business or professional practice. It can be easy to get discouraged and stop trying to grow your business. But if you stop trying your brand will suffer and people will notice.

If you choose to think like Jeff Bezos and other successful entrepreneurs, you probably spend every waking hour thinking about how to build your brand, your team, and better market your products and services. You have no fear of making investments in your business because you know that whether the marketing campaign is a success or not, you will always learn something. Think. Plan. Invest. Market. Test. Measure. Learn. Start over. Real entrepreneurs face their fears every day. And so can you.

So if you find yourself singing the blues based on economic news or what you’re experiencing with your own business, just stop what you’re thinking and doing right now. Go to a quiet place where no one can bother you for a few minutes. Picture yourself as having the success you want to have. Envision yourself launching the next marketing campaign with great success. Picture your brand as a market leader. See yourself enjoying the fruits of your labor. Face your fears and realize they are only in your mind. Model your thinking and behaviors to a Jeff Bezos or someone in your industry who has found a way to build their brand and grow their business.

Think. Plan. Invest. Market. Test. Measure. Learn. Start over. Building your brand, business and personal is a never ending practice.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona

http://twitter.com/WealthNetTeam


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Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

When Your Marketing Follow Up Fails

Monday, June 8th, 2009

I was looking into a new telemarketing firm to develop an outsourcing relationship for WealthNet and some of our clients. They kept “dripping” on me with some fairly marginal email marketing. Meaning the emails were always the same content. BORING. But I have been thinking about ramping up the outbound call campaigns and decided to call the company.

I called to speak with the owner who’s name is on all the emails they send. Figured I might deal with him directly. But he was out of the planet or office or country that day. The salesman who fielded the call (I’ll call him Mr. Don’t HaveEnoughLeadsLately or DHELL) pitched me a webinar the company hosts twice weekly. I figured I’d attend and see how they do. I could also tackle some bookkeeping work for our bookkeeper if the call was totally lame. And it was.

Here’s where the follow up failed. Between Thursday of last week and today, Monday, I received about six reminders for the webinar. Maybe most people need to be reminded this much. But for me, once I commit and put it on the calendar, I am in. Don’t bug me with all your email reminders that need to be deleted.

As if the experience thus far wasn’t bad enough, I get two phone calls just prior to the webinar today. Guess who? Mr. DHELL of course. He called my office and left a voice mail. Then he called my cell and left the same voice mail. Can you spell ANNOYING? If you’re going to call me, just leave one message. Better yet, email me a personal email. It’s more convenient for me to respond.

By the time I completed my bookkeeping work, I mean the lame webinar telling me how great they are because they use CRM software and email marketing, I am completely annoyed by the marketing and follow up experience. Or lack thereof really. In fact, I’ve decided shortly after the call that I’d blog about it today and help our readers understand what not to do. I also decided to send an email to the company to tell them to leave me the heck alone. Specifically, don’t call me.

Then guess what happened? It was the last straw. About an hour after the webinar and my follow up “please leave me alone” email, I am on a weekly call with Noah, my partner, taking care of some business when the office line rings again. I see it’s MR. DHELL calling for the five hundredth time. My blood pressure rises as I think about what I want to tell this guy. I put Noah on hold. And I tell Mr. DHELL what I think about his follow up. Politely of course. But directly in hope that he would “get it.” I think he got it.

Here’s the moral of the story. Don’t be a pain in the ass with your follow up. Make it relevant. When prospects respond telling you to leave them alone, leave them alone. Go back to “dripping” and following up in a very soft and indirect way. Instead of pissing your prospects off you can at least keep them in your pipeline so when the time is right for them to dialogue again, they are willing, ready and able to do so. And maybe they won’t be pissed off about you pissing them off.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona

http://twitter.com/WealthNetTeam

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Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Winning on the Web – Part V – The Problem with Rich Media (and the Solutions)

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

This is the 5th article in a series about Winning on the Web.  Don’t forget to check out the previous article on balancing professional copywriting for SEO with copywriting for conversion.

Take a look at our banner at the top of this page.  Cliff and I just love our tag line, “Discover the Art of Business Development.”  We think it will resonate with our visitors as well.  So we’ve featured it prominently in a creative font as part of our header.  But we have done so knowing that we are falling victim to an important truth: SEARCH ENGINES CAN’T READ IMAGES.  Therefore, at least as far as our banner is concerned, our pages get no points for the search term “discover the art of business development.”

As I’ve discussed before, we’re not trying to rank for that term, but the point I’m trying to make is that just because humans can see, read, and or listen to something on your website, does not mean that search engines can do the same.  I see a lot of sites where people put up images of their print collateral for their web pages.  Guess what?  Search engines don’t know what that page is about.  I see people who embed copies of radio interviews and other audio content with little more than the title of the program and when it aired.  Guess what? Search Engines don’t know what the program is about.

How can we help search engines figure out what our images, audio, and video are about?  First, when using an image don’t forget about the title and alt tags.  For example, take a look at the 3 buttons below our header.  Google has no clue what the conversation bubbles, bar chart, or globe mean in the context of our site.  But we’ve told Google what they mean with our alt and title tags.  You can mouse over those images to confirm what Google sees.  So while Google can’t see those pictures, much less guess their relationship to each other and to our content, it can read the extra text we’ve provided in the HTML to help it understand.  Additionally, including these attributes in your HTML will help visitors to your site who are using a mobile device instead of a desktop browser, or who have visual impairments.

When providing audio and video content, you should generally provide a transcript of what’s being said and done.  Obviously, search engines can read the transcript, and thus send you visitors who are interested in that topic.  But the transcript also has the advantage of allowing your visitors to consume your information in the format they choose.  Frequently, people can’t or don’t want to play content out loud because they are at work or in another public place.  Written content allows them to consume your information anyway.

If you have great print collateral that you are currently putting up as-is on the web, or if you don’t know how to make sure that your code gives your media maximum search points, consider using our website repair service to make sure that all of your content is contributing to getting top search engine placement.

Have you seen your search engine rankings go up as a result of fixing your tags or providing written transcriptions?  Do you have rich multimedia content your unsure how to leverage?  Chime in with a comment!

Previous articles in the Winning on the Web Series
Having the best site in your industry, website repairs for maximum search engine and browser compatibility, professional copywrting for SEO, and balancing SEO and conversion.  These are all important considerations for beginning and maintaining a serious on page SEO initiative.

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YOU Need an Internet Marketing Strategy

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Earlier today I was chatting with a business owner about their website.   This firm’s clients are restaurants and hotels.  Our conversation went something like this:

Me: You have a nice site.  We think there are some things you can do to drive more traffic to it and leverage it to increase conversions.

Nick [I've changed his name, not because he is innocent, but because he is embarrasingly guilty]: We don’t care about driving traffic to our website.  We’re an in person company.  The website is just a little something for our existing customers.

Me: Restaurant owners and managers use the web to find vendors as well.  If you expanded the purpose of your site to generate more leads, I think you’d see a very high ROI.

Nick: You don’t get it.  Restaurant owners already know who they’re going to buy from, and we already have relationships with ALL of them.  Using our website to find them would be pointless.

Me: Why don’t you let me conduct a free site analysis to show you just how big your online market is, and what you can do to tap into it.

Nick: Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to pass.

Yes, it’s easy to point fingers at people like Nick.  But many business owners make similar mistakes and are equally unapologetic.  Let’s walk through some of Nick’s incorrect assumptions:

Our customers don’t use the web to find vendors. In some situations there might be some truth to this.  When I’m hungry for fast food I don’t do a Google search for “hamburgers Phoenix.”  However, I have gone to fast food sites when a creative add campaign has taken me there.  Remember the videos where Burger King announced they had discontinued the Whopper?  So even if people don’t frequently search for your term, you still need an internet strategy.

Websites are impersonal. It’s clear that Nick is thinking about old school websites; the kind that function like brochures, but online.  We agree that it’s pointless to have this kind of website.  But today’s web 2.0 designs can be very personal.  They can tell you more about yourself (taken any quizzes on facebook recently?).  They can keep track of things for you.  They can allow you to express yourself.  They can even remember birthdays and anniversaries.   Try getting your sales force to do that!

We already know all of our potential customers. I’m sure this is statement is a mix of ego and false bravado, but Nick said it, so I’m going to tear it apart.  First, Nick has defined his target market very narrowly.  His particular product lends itself to distribution outside of his geographical area with very little operational tweaking.  Second, there are new entrants into this industry all the time.  People start new restaurants, and they will research suppliers on the internet before the grand opening is even announced.  Managers leave and new ones get hired.  Many of them will turn to the internet in hopes of finding new vendors to reduce costs or increase satisfaction.  These people are making decisions before they even get on Nick’s “in person only” radar.

I can’t use a free analysis to quantify my online market. I wasn’t asking Nick to take my word for it.  I offered to give him facts and figures to justify my confidence, which he turned down because he thought he already knew the answer.  Yes, when we perform a free website analysis it’ s to get more business.  But it’s to get more business based on real ROI projections.  We know we can really help entreprenuers.  Some of our analyses show increases of only hundreds of dollars per month.  Some show increases in the tens of thousands.  It gives  business owners a sense of what internet marketing would mean to them.  FYI I did some quick research on Nick’s industry: thousands of people look for companies like his every week.

The bottom line is that no matter who you are and no matter who your ideal customer is, the internet can help you find more of them.  We can help you quantify how many of them you’re missing, and what you need to do to bring them in.

Think you’re an exception to the rule?  Have an example of how you got surprising results via the web?  Chime in with a comment!

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Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »

Winning on the Web – Part IV – Don’t Forget About Conversion

Friday, May 29th, 2009

This is the 4th article in a series about Winning on the Web.  Don’t forget to check out the previous article on professional copywriting for the web, including tips to make your keywords stand out from the rest of your content in the eyes of search engines

When companies get on board with an on page SEO program like the one we’ve started outlining, they frequently fall into a different error all together.  Namely, in their efforts to make their pages ideal for search engines spiders from both a technical and content standpoint, they forget about their human visitors who will eventually come.

This can manifest itself in varying degrees.  Perhaps you simply fail to capture your readers interest with your repetitive content that is now devoid of any personality or wit.  Or perhaps you actively annoy people with sentences that don’t make sense just so you can use a keyword.

Don’t let the tail wag the dog.  Getting top search engine placement won’t mean a thing if you can’t convert those new visitors into new business.  Professional copywriting for on page SEO can be very difficult.  Ideally, you’ll find a synergy between the keywords you’ve chosen and the things that need to be said to get people excited about your offering.  But if you have to make a compromise, make sure you preserve your conversion power.

If you struggle finding the synergy between your chosen keywords and what you think your customers want to hear, consider leveraging WealthNet’s copywriting services to help you produce content that will not only help you rank highly in search engines, but will also make your prospective customers want to move the relationship forward.

Don’t forget to check out our articles on why it’s important to have the best site in your industry, as well as the website repairs and professional copywrting strategies for choosing and emphasizing keywords needed as the foundation of any serious on page SEO initiative.

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Winning on the Web – Part III – On Page SEO Continued

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

This is is the 3rd post in our Winning on the Web series.  If you haven’t already, you should check out the previous article about the website repair necessary to start a serious on page SEO effort.

Once you’ve made sure that your site is technically sound, the next step is to make sure that your content is matched to words for which people actually search.  This is a lot more difficult than it sounds.  Professional copywriting for the web is significantly different than copy writing for other media.  Our first inclination is to be catchy, creative, and unique.  So we naturally pepper the copy on our site with witty slogans, and repeat our beloved brand names over and over.  WealthNet has a few of these phrases ourselves like “Discover the Art of Business Development” or even the title of this series “Winning on the Web.”

The problem with phrases like these is that people don’t search for them when they want to find a company like ours.  According to Google, in a given month not one person searches  for “discover the art of business development.”.  Only 58 people type “winning on the web.”  And it’s extremely likely that the same is true for your slogan.  So the first step in improving your content for an on page SEO effort is to figure out what phrases people actually search for when they want to find a company like yours.

Knowing we need to find highly searched terms, people often fall victim to another error.  To illustrate, the phrase “business development” is typed into Google over 800,000 time every month!  Wow, I would love to have a pipeline of 800,000 people, so I should work on getting that term, right?  Actually, probably not.  The truth is that many of the people who type in that phrase are probably not actually looking to engage a company like ours.  Maybe they want to find out about new developments in the world of business, or the want to find out about the business of real estate development, etc.  Additionally, even if I were 100% convinced that people who type in that term are looking for the type of services we provide, it’s quite likely that it will take longer to rank highly for that term than for a more precise term.  So I’d be waiting longer for my prospects to come, and when they do come I’d have to wade through a lot of junk. So you want to identify phrases not only that people search for, but that they search for when they’re trying to find someone like you.

The next step in professional copywriting is to use those phrases as frequently as possible in your content.  Furthermore, if you emphasize your kewords by making them bold, linked, etc. the search engines will rank you even higher for those terms.

It’s interesting to note that some shady website owners have tried creative tricks to rank for terms that they don’t actually want their visitors to read (for a variety of reasons).  People have tried having very small text at the bottom of the page (similar to a legal disclaimer), and others have even placed white text on a white background so that it won’t be seen by a typical visitor.  Techniques like these worked for a time, but they don’t anymore, and as search engines discover new loopholes they fix their results formula to address them, and heavily punish the cheaters.  So if you hear about a scheme to increase your ranking without writing bonafide content, don’t fall in the trap or you’ll pay dearly later.

If you don’t have the time or the expertise to write compelling, keyword rich content, WealthNet’s copywriting services make sure that you get the maximum value out of each of your pages.  Also, don’t forget to check our our article on why it’s important to have the best site in your industry, and the technical foundation of on page SEO.

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Posted in Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »

Winning on the Web – Part II – Introduction to On Page SEO

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

This is the second post in a series about Winning on the Web.  If you missed part one, click here to find out the importance of having a best in class site.  Making sure that your site puts its best foot forward for search engines is called on page search engine optimization (on page SEO).  Let’s talk a little bit about how search engines are able to figure out if your site is one of the best sites for your industry or not.

It might help you better understand how search engines work if I make a simple analogy: search engine spiders are to web pages as Star Trek ships are to intergalactic races.  Star Trek ships try to figure out:

  1. Where intelligent species are.
  2. Their level of sophistication.
  3. What those species are “about” (culture, etc.).
  4. Their morals and motives.

Similarly, search engines try to figure out:

  1. Where new content is at on the web.
  2. How sophisticated that content is.
  3. What that content is about.
  4. The morals and motives of the web owner.

Without going into detail now, just take my word that unlike finding a new species in the vastness of the universe, search engines have a pretty easy time of finding new web content.  Therefore, this post will focus on the next issue on the list, which is how do search engines determine your level of sophistication.  Phrased differently, are you using slingshots or plasma cannons, covered wagons or star ships?

One of the important things that search engines will look at to answer this question is your site’s adherence to web coding standards.  The languages and standards of the web have evolved a lot since the internet began, even over the past few years, and search engines rank more highly those sites that have evolved as well.  In our experience, the vast majority of websites are in need of website repair in order to be in line with this basic search engine requirement.

Some of the major things search engines consider are:

  1. Do you specify what “generation” of code you are using?
  2. How recent is that generation?
  3. Do you use that code correctly?

The easiest way to get an inkling for whether or not your webpage will be considered sophisticated by a search engine is to have it validated at validator.w3.org.  Obviously, perfection is the goal.  If your site has a few errors you might be dinged slightly, but it’s probably not a huge deal.  But if your site has double digit errors and warnings according to the validator, chances are the offending web page is not ranking as highly as it could.  In the worst case scenario, the errors make it difficult or impossible for the search engine to figure out what your page is about.  Only slightly better is that they are able to figure out what you’re trying to communicate, but they penalize you for doing so poorly.  If you think this is happening to you, taking action to repair your website will likely result in an immediate boost in search engine rankings.

Following web standards doesn’t just make it easier for search engines to read your page.  For example, web browsing programs on mobile phones, video game consoles, and other devices may not be able to display your page if it is using old or broken code.  This means fewer prospects able to see your webpage when they want, and start a relationship that will ultimately lead to one or more sales.

Lastly, adherence to web standards is only a small part of on page SEO.  Your site might validate without few to no errors, but still be guilty of violating several other guidelines that search engines have established regarding canonicalization, url structure, broken links, and so much more.  If you’re not comfortable identifying and addressing these issues yourself, our website repair program will help you fix these problems and more so that your web pages can begin getting the ranking they deserve.

(Did you miss the first post in the Winning on the Web series?  Learn why professional web design is important.)

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WealthNet Wisdom-Free Tips and Insights to Grow Your Cashflow.

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

This is the first of the WealthNet Wisdom posts. In addition to the educational content we regularly add to the WealthNet blog, my goal is offer tips and insights that will help virtually any business grow cash flow.

“The worse business gets, the more we invest in marketing.” -Herb Kelleher co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Southwest airlines.

While I may not have exactly nailed the quote, hopefully you get the point. Yes, I know we are in a very tough economic period. But this too shall pass. Might it get worse? Perhaps. Will it get better eventually? I believe so. But in the interim, what are business owners to do? My humble opinion is market like crazy and grow your cash flow.

Every day I talk to at least a handful of business owners over the phone and in person. Sometimes I come away really inspired by what I learn and hear. Other times, it’s down right silly.

For example, yesterday I heard a ridiculous comment. This particular business owner remarked, “Business is terrible right now. We’re just going to ride it out.” Another told me in an email, “We’re really not able to do much marketing right now due to our budget.”

Are you kidding me? My only thought is, “Great. Why don’t you just vacate the office and lock the doors?” Move one. Lay off the rest of the crew. Go ahead and give up. The really sharp competitors of yours will eat your lunch and grab as much market share as they can capture while everyone else sticks their head in the sand to wait this out.

On a more inspiring note, I talked yesterday at length with an real estate entrepreneur who is getting his head handed to him by this market. While he does his absolute best to maintain his spirit and positive attitude, the sharks are circling his doors. But you know what I love about him? He’s still looking for new opportunities in his field. And it’s just a matter of a healthy business perspective while the media hammers us with more bad news.

So what can we all be doing to grow our businesses and cash flow without busting the bank. (Pardon the pun.)

1. Keep the right attitude. If you need inspiration and can avoid the Ostrich Outlook, get online and read about the Inc. 500 for 2008. Each year Inc. Magazine profiles businesses from a wide variety of industries that, at least last year, are growing from 300% to 3000%. That’s right. Serious growth. Will there be similar success stories for 2009 and beyond. Yes.

2. Focus on improving conversions of leads to prospects and prospects to customers. While many markets have dwindled, there’s still market share for every business to capture. So if you’re focused on generating a solid flow of new leads, focus on what you can do to improve conversions. One of the best ways to do this is to hyper focus on your positioning and market with education. Know what your customer wants. Enroll prospects through the sales process. Educate with a blog. Send a white paper or make it available as a download to build your database. Make some customer service calls and get some new referrals. Just keep the pipeline full. And make the best possible effort to do what it takes to convert leads to customers.

3. Keep marketing and measure your results. Clearly define your ideal target. Reevaluate your positioning and what you offer. (The market for pain relievers is huge compared to that for vitamins. So keep than in mind when you consider your positioning, marketing messages, and value propositions)

For example, I just worked out a great arrangement to generate 2500 direct mail pieces to businesses promoting my “Market While You Sleep” campaign. I just hired a sales assistant to make 8 hours of follow up calls every day. Her goal is to set three to four appointments for us each day.

Leverage the Internet. Drive more traffic to your website. Optimize your site so you convert visitors to leads and prospects. Earn permission to market. Market with education. And follow up like crazy with an enrollment approach instead of silly sales tactics. No one likes to be sold. But people love to buy. Even though that may be hard to believe right now.

WealthNet Partners is in the business of helping business owners grow cash flow. We teach the art of business development. We enhance Internet and traditional marketing strategies. We automate follow up. We train and coach sales people and sales managers. And business is booming because there are still tons of business owners out there who understand that economic times like this present a significant opportunity to capture market share.

The worse business gets, the more you need to market.

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Lynn Hennessy
Hennessy Insurance Group 

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