The Salesby5 Blog

If you compare sites that offer content, one requesting personal information for access and the other without a requirement, the site without a registration requirement sees its number of downloads or views go up by as much as a factor of 50. If you require an email address or other personal information, approximately only 2% of your audience will bother to download your stuff. If you are asking for personal information, make sure that you really need it and plan to use it. If, instead, you’re trying to spread an ideavirus (PDF Link), you may be better off distributing your information without asking for anything in return.

This weekend I passed the billboard seen above. With a little research, I found out that Your Wife is Hot was the most popular among the respondents to the recent NEWS online survey on the effectiveness of billboard advertising.

I was pleasantly shocked; it made me look three times and I wanted to take a photo. That has only happened once before, when I encountered the worst billboard I had ever seen, and I only wanted to take a picture then so I could show people what not to do. At SalesBy5 we are not usually fans of billboards because most lack a call to action or the ability to track performance. However in this situation, with the South Texas heat already breaking 100 degrees a few days this year, their advertising was spot-on.

A few months ago we wrote about brand promise and brand experience, so I called Jon Wayne Heating & Air Conditioning yesterday to talk to them about writing this blog. After a few rings an automated phone system answered and promptly hung up on me. I called back, which I would not normally do, but I was in search of answers. This time their system worked, so I asked if there was anyone available I could talk to about their billboard. Unfortunately no one was available, and I was told to leave a voice mail. Persistent, I then asked if I could get the cell phone number of someone to talk to, and was once again told to leave a voice mail. Finally, I offered to leave my name and number and have the person call me back as soon as possible, but was once again told to leave a voice mail. Dejected, I ended up doing as I was told.

It is rare that we see good advertising, let alone great. We are exposed to so much clutter that letting something through our subconscious gate keeper is huge! I have mentioned this billboard to about 15 people now and also wrote about it on Twitter. As Seth Godin puts it; if something is remarkable, people will remark about it. I say people are going to talk, so give them something to talk about with your ads, pitches, and brand.

No one from Jon Wayne was heard from as of press time which is now 24 hours later!

Photo courtesy of Derrich.com

We recognize that many of you are fast growing companies that take your continuing education seriously.  At the same time, the current economic situation does make these investments more difficult.  To help you stay at the top of your game, we want to introduce you to a series of upcoming live video webcasts with Pat Lencioni (Jan 28), Seth Godin (Feb 10), and Guy Parsons (Mar 17).

Pat is talking about how teams can handle the extreme stress of the current situation and remain “healthy” (and he’ll touch on his new “Three Big Questions for Frantic Families”); Seth will discuss what is really working and not working in marketing; Guy, will cover how Toyota’s LEAN practices apply to service firms.

Live interactive sessions with three top business thought leaders – also available on-demand for 30 days if some miss the live event. It’s an inexpensive way to bring some top-notch executive learning to you – view on desktops or in a conference room. No travel time or expense. Smart, easy, inexpensive.

If you’re interested, you can get more information and register under Erik Darmstetter as your referral.

Do you set limits on yourself? Many of us (humans) set limits or constraints on our abilities.  Amazingly, most of these are self imposed.  We have the ability to step out in faith or stay where we are out of fear. You are rewarded when you step out in faith. What can you do today that is different to get you different outcomes?

What if you tried to stop selling?  As Seth says, start telling the stories of how your product or service has helped businesses or people. Tell a great story and it will be remembered.  People will beg you for more.  The begging for more might be in the form of wanting more information, a sale or a referral to a friend that should hear the story.  The more compelling you can make your story, the better.  People can buy a product any time, what they are looking for is a story (feeling) that will make them want to work with you.

 photo by he and fi

I was just checking out Dave Balter’s new book, The Word of Mouth Manual, Volume II (click to download in pdf free), as mentioned on Seth’s blog.  Dave published an interesting formula to calculate the value of a traditional commercial to word of mouth communication-

(# of traditional media impressions) X (Average length of impressions) = (# of word of mouth communications) X (Average length of word of mouth communications)

Compare these numbers and see how many people you need talking about your product versus being totally engaged with your commercial:

# of traditional media impressions (the total number of people who saw your commercials) – 100,000
Average length of impressions – 30 seconds
Average length of word of mouth communications – 480 seconds (8 minutes)
100,000 X 30 = 3,000,000/480=6,250

According to his equation, the equivalent of 100,000 people watching, understanding and digesting a 30 second ad are 6,250 people having a conversation.

How can you get those people talking about you/your products and service instead of spending money on advertising? Did you start with a great (remarkable) product/service?  Are you applying marketing physics – the product has an overt benefit, with a dramatic difference and that gives people a real reason to believe that you are able to deliver that benefit.  Wrap these things all together with a 5th grade level explanation and you have a winner on your hands.

 I had a question that was recently chosen on Dishymix.com for Seth Godin, the most popular marketing blogger in the world, to answer.  Having my answer chosen won me an autographed copy of Seth’s new book, Meatball Sundae.  I was happy to receive the book today and was pleasantly surprised by a free prize inside – a Seth Godin action figure!  Seth is a great example of someone who lives his brand.  Thank you Seth, I appreciate the nice touch! – Nan

Do you do what you say you will do?  That is salt and pepper, but the free prize is not!  Take a note from Seth and start today.  If you do, people will remark!  What can you do that is not expected?

 Today it hit me! Kya has been with us just over a month and by absorbing our culture and asking many questions, she is our new star at SalesBy5! She recently learned about a customer of ours who had an employee that was a real hero – Willie. Willie’s manager, Kim, told us the story of what he had done, on his own, to solve a large problem at an office building – working late into the night with no request to work past 5 PM. Willie not only did this, but did it with his awesome attitude and a smile. The tenants entering their offices the next day were unaware of any problem, all thanks to Willie being the company hero.

Kya heard me tell the story to all of us at SalesBy5, then found a opportunity to nominate Willie for a Hidden Hero award through the national organization City Year. Willie was awarded the Hidden Hero for 2008.  The point? Willie is the face of the company yet he doesn’t own it, manage or run it. He is a building engineer and he is not average! Willie is loved by the tenants and his attitude is contagious to the people that work with him.

People quit people and people are hired by people; companies merely exist. What can you do to make sure your “faces” are the shining stars in your company?

Update: Seth Godin and team have set up a lens to celebrate your heroes for charity!

We all have a personal brand. Using you natural strengths is the best branding message you can convey!

I love it when I meet people and they own a BlackBerry. I never let them walk away without offering to install Viigo (a fantastic Mobile RSS reader), Google Maps and Beyond 411. Typically, they are shocked that these amazing applications are free. I’ve often received emails a few days later thanking me! I don’t charge for this service, it’s a free prize inside for knowing Salesby5. It brands me and our company as tech-savvy and high value.

The value I give is not forced, it is something I must do. It’s received as a gift, but really it is my gift to be able to share. What are you doing to share your strengths, your brand, your value?

Tell us in the comments what you do to gain mindshare as high value.

 When I (Nan) first came on board with SalesBy5 I was provided a Blackberry.  As any die-hard ‘Berry fan knows, it is THE device for email.  Here’s what we didn’t realize, without BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server), we were only utilizing a small portion of the power of the device!  We got BES and things changed.  Here’s the interesting part – we don’t have our own server and we don’t have an IT department!  Soon, you will be reading a press release about two companies from San Antonio that are making BES and Exchange hosting a reality for companies like ours, while freeing up time for IT.  The Phone Store and Rackspace have teamed up to provide us this rockin’ solution.  Everything is hosted at Rackspace, who hasn’t had their servers go down for SEVEN YEARS.  How good is your uptime?

Here’s what’s cool about it.  Having this set up allows for real-time syncing of your contacts, calendars, tasks, notes and email across all your computers and wireless devices – we use Blackberrys.  Imagine this, you’re out at a lunch and run into a friend that you want to have lunch with, but your assistant manages your calendar.  Typically, you would be concerned about double booking since she may have made a change and you haven’t synced your phone yet.  With this, if she entered a new appointment you know about it in SECONDS!  If you choose to add the lunch to your device, she will know about it that quickly too!  Anything you add on any device will automatically sync to your other computers (PC or Mac).  Did I mention that their virus and spam protection is incredible?  It curbs about 99% of spam and rarely does it make a mistake.

The advantage to having The Phone Store and Rackspace do Exchange and BES hosting is that your IT person now has time to work on helping sell for your company.  You know that your website is a marketing function, don’t you?  Why pay your IT guy incredible amounts of money to “change the oil and rotate the tires” when he could be working on your site, increasing visibility and making money for the company? 

So how does this increase sales? Well, can you believe there are still people out there with a paper calendars that no one else on their team can see? There are people using Microsoft Exchange who must connect their smart phone or pda to sync. What’s worse is there are business people with a phone and no e-mail “till they get back in town” or “get back to the office.” Keep in mind that anyone in sales knows the if you are first, you usually win. So the first e-mail or the first returned call is yours to win or yours to lose.  Our team comes home from a business trip or a day off and has no communications to catch up on.

The #1 cause of stress for business people is unfinished business at the end of the day. Now, we just gave you tips on how to:

• Lower your stress significantly
• Increase sales
• Work smarter, not harder
• Use technology to allow for speed and flexibility in your schedule
• Get out of 1990 and into 2008

Contact the following people to find out more and tell ‘em SalesBy5 sent you!

Kevin Kemp @ The Phone Store – kevin AT thephonestoreinc.com

Xavier Rodriguez @ Rackspace – xavier.rodriguez AT rackspace.com

These guys are perfect examples of what Seth Godin spoke of in his post A shortage of digital coaches.