Day Two Live Blog Recap: Affiliate Management Days West 2012 #AMDays |  |
- Day Two Live Blog Recap: Affiliate Management Days West 2012 #AMDays
- Make Your Failures a School Not A Graveyard
- Small Business Health Reform Survey: Moral Obligations and Retention
- Your Best Salesperson is Not Your Best Sales Manager
- Double Your Local Business Revenues Using Only The Web
- Passion Fuels Small Business
| Day Two Live Blog Recap: Affiliate Management Days West 2012 #AMDays Posted: 22 Mar 2012 02:30 PM PDT
Additional live coverage was also being broadcast from other sources in the blogosphere and in continuation of my previous compilation of blog posts about day one sessions, I'd like to bring you a list of blog coverage from day two of the conference:
The next U.S. Affiliate Management Days conference is coming in October of 2012. If you haven’t yet expressed your preference on the location of this event, please do so by participating in the poll here to help us understand what would work best for you. From Small Business Trends |
| Make Your Failures a School Not A Graveyard Posted: 22 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT I'm constantly intrigued by small business, especially the idea that the largest most profitable big organizations start with thoughts, ideas and first steps. These are the same things that small companies begin with. However, we sometimes count ourselves out because of size. But business of any size is risk, and your ability to manage it determines the quality of your company.
Robert Frank, Wealth Reporter for the Wall Street Journal says:
Failure, like competition, is a part of the process, and how you deal with it is a choice. What happens when your dream doesn’t turn into what you expected? You get an opportunity to see what you're made of. You Can Walk Away And Never Try AgainOr you can make adjustments and learn from the failure. There is no telling what you can become when you push through. But failure becomes absolute when you quit. It's merely training, however, when you regroup, redesign, reinvent. What did Og Mandino say in the Greatest Salesman in the World?
Well, Is It?Are you in the right business and is your determination strong enough? No one can answer those questions for you. But once you know, it becomes easier (which is not the same thing as easy) to pay the price it takes to create something that really works, that really matters to your audience and to market it in a way that truly connects. Youngme Moon, professor at the Harvard Business School and author of Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, highlights three types of brands that market themselves in counter intuitive ways. She refers to them as the reverse brands, breakaway brands and hostile brands. Reverse Brands Change The Way We Do ThingsThey tend to go in the opposite direction and it works. Youngme refers to Google as an example. In stark contrasts to AOL at the time and Yahoo today, instead of the busy, crowded search engine front pages, Google went simple, minimalistic. They focused on one core thing — the search.What's the one core thing that you can focus on? Breakaway Brands Function Outside Of Their CategoryCirque du Soliel, for example, founded by Guy Laliberte, has redefined our concept of the circus. His modern version is filled with art in the form of dance, music and gymnastics and feels more like theatre than our old school concepts of the circus. And because of this difference Cirque du Soliel stands out. What can you focus on that — you're passionate about and — makes you different from the rest? Hostile Brands Are Statement Brands“. . .identity markers, and intuitively, we know it," Youngme says. Her examples include the Mini Cooper, Red Bull and Birkenstocks. At first glance one is too small — should a car really be that tiny? Another tastes like crap according to some Red Bull naysayers. And Birkenstock's just look awful. But for hostile brands, they market by turning things on it's head. They embrace the fight and the difference:
But How Do You Get There?I think, the very natural and organic process of building something that you're passionate about is the key. Your passion and commitment will place you in a position to see things that others have not. And to group things that others would not. And to fight for things that others do not. Among other things, Guy Laliberte brought theatrical excellence to the circus, and it's amazing and good for business. But I am sure he had countless chances to quit, but didn't. Make your failures and weaknesses a school, not a graveyard for your dreams.
From Small Business Trends |
| Small Business Health Reform Survey: Moral Obligations and Retention Posted: 22 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT With small business healthcare costs rising, what does that mean for small business owners who are struggling to offer competitive healthcare benefits to their employees? eHealth, Inc. released the results of a survey today of 236 small business customers of eHealthInsurance.com, the majority of whom have 10 or fewer employees. The results show us how small business owners feel about the state of healthcare costs and legislation, as well as what they’re doing to cut costs.
First, Are They Offering Small Business Healthcare Coverage? We’re hearing about larger companies like Wal-Mart cutting healthcare benefits, so you might wonder if small business healthcare is one of the categories getting axed, what with budgets shrinking every month. According to the survey, the answer is no. Small businesses, it seems, continue to offer healthcare benefits, though for different reasons. Forty-four percent offer their employees medical benefits because they feel a “moral obligation” to provide these benefits to their staff. One-third of those surveyed say they do so to attract and retain solid talent. Other reasons include the tax benefits offering small business healthcare coverage provides, as well as increasing workforce productivity. What Are Employers Paying for Healthcare Benefits? While the scale ranges on what employers are paying per employee for these benefits, the majority (79%) spend around $200 a month per employee on medical benefits. Most of the business owners surveyed also require their employees to contribute toward the cost of their premiums. One-third require employees to pay 50% or more of their monthly premiums, while slightly more than half require their employees to contribute just 10% or less. Affordability, it seems, is a key factor in the decision making process. In addition to affordability of the plan, small business owners also want “richness of benefits” and access to physicians. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Cost Saving Strategies Hoping for tips on cutting costs for small business healthcare coverage? The survey provided a few. They included:
And speaking of employee wellness programs: not only can they reduce sick days and your overall medical costs, but they also can attract and retain great talent, as well as motivate your staff to work harder. Work to promote a healthy culture by encouraging exercise during work breaks and taking the junk food out of the break room. And remember to shop around for the best coverage at the best rate; sometimes staying too long with one insurance provider might keep you from realizing cost savings you’d get by becoming a new customer of another company. From Small Business Trends |
| Your Best Salesperson is Not Your Best Sales Manager Posted: 22 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT Who's the first person you look to when it's time to make a promotion? If you're going by pure logic, it's usually the best person on the team. But that's not always the case for your sales team. Your best sales person may even be your worst sales manager candidate.
Sure, a good salesperson knows how to sell, but how often do managers sell? They may still hit their numbers — hey, they may even surpass them — but the rest of your sales team is left struggling to hit their full potential because they're not being properly managed. And if your sales team isn't hitting their full potential, neither is your business. In fact, Cisco Systems estimated that bad bosses cost firms $12 million annually. Imagine how much you could grow your business if even just a fraction of that was filtered back into your businesses? Ready to start looking for the real candidate for your sales manager? "The characteristics of a good salesperson are money motivated, large ego, and a bit selfish," said Greta Schulz, founder and CEO of Schulz Sales Consulting. "These are the opposite of what a sales manager should be." So, what qualities should you look for in a sales manager? Glad you asked. Schulz suggests finding someone with these three qualities:
When you find someone whose skills check out, whether they're homegrown or an outsider, you're not free from red flags just yet. In order for them to succeed, they need some support from you. You need to give them:
While it's important to look to other outlets to find the best person for the best job, don't immediately rule out your best sales person because they may have all of the qualities mentioned above. And if they do, your job just got much easier.
From Small Business Trends |
| Double Your Local Business Revenues Using Only The Web Posted: 22 Mar 2012 05:30 AM PDT Your potential customers have never had so many choices and so little time as they do today. Our lifestyles have changed, we have changed. But what has changed the most is the way we research and how we decide where to spend our money.
Consumers today, more than ever, rely on the Internet to find information about local businesses such as yours. As a result of this shift, other marketing avenues are becoming less effective and more expensive than most of us can tolerate. That's the bad news. The good news is – even though complex, local Internet marketing is definitely not rocket science and a small shift in how you think about marketing your business on the web and a little work can, in fact, double your business. The Secret of Local Internet Marketing Success This may come as a surprise, but the key in making the web work for your small business and not against it is to make the Internet, as a marketing channel, accountable. You wouldn’t run a newspaper ad twice if it didn't make the phone ring, so why would you settle for a website that hardly pays for its hosting costs? Treat your website as your most important salesperson and be on a constant quest to improve its performance. Believe Nothing, Track Everything I bet that you can't say, with absolute confidence, how many sales leads or orders you got from your website last year. If that's the case, you are certainly not alone. Most small business owners are not obsessed about marketing metrics. You will spend more time, effort and money taking shots in the dark than you can afford if you don't start measuring everything important for the success of your business. What do you have to measure? Everything that provides you with insight necessary for growth. In local Internet marketing, those metrics would be:
The metrics you should obsess about are going to depend on your type of business, your current marketing campaigns and your brand. For example, if your business is a restaurant, a metric called "visitor loyalty" (how often the same people visit your website) is much more important for your business than it is for a contractor business. Contractors would love to get the number of unique visitors up because unique visitors mean new business, not service calls. If you are running local TV or radio ads, you should strongly consider creating a website just for that campaign and making sure you capture every bit of data you can – the number of visits the website got, how many people filled out the contact form, how many phone calls you got, etc. This kind of information will help you negotiate pricing for your next campaign. It might even help you to convince your local media outlet to consider pay-per-performance advertising. Learn to test everything that is important and you will quickly learn that not everything that is written out there works for your business. ROI Is Everything Beautiful websites, high rankings, lots of Facebook likes and Twitter followers don't necessarily translate to high ROI. As a person that owns a small business, you almost certainly have a shortage of either time or money. That's why you need to set specific, measurable and attainable goals and project returns for every marketing campaign, no matter how small it seems. Track everything and take the feedback from the data you are measuring seriously. Rinse and repeat. Thinking outside of the box with your feet firmly on the ground while implementing what's working for your business will produce remarkable results over time. Guaranteed. Double Your Money Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Posted: 22 Mar 2012 02:30 AM PDT Passion fuels the best businesses. Does it fuel yours? Here are some examples of small business owners passionate about what they do and some links helpful to entrepreneurs when pursuing their dreams. For the LoveThis entrepreneur has a personal mission. A mother who faced the struggle to deal with cancer diagnosis and treatment now looks at what she can do do help others in a similar situation. Yahoo! News Making a business out of what you love. Here’s yet another example of an entrepreneur who created a business from something she loves. It’s a great success story of small business passion. The Sydney Morning Herald StrategyImagination needs diversification. This New Jersey-based business creates products requiring both skill and imagination. Now the company needs to come up with an equally imaginative approach to diversify its clientele and stop relying on one big source of work and revenue. You’re the Boss Expecting the unexpected. Running a startup requires a kind of sixth sense that comes with experience. Learning to hone this almost instinctive way of looking at the startup world takes time and (maybe) some great advice from someone who’s been there before. Inc.com Online MarketingWhat you need to succeed. An online entrepreneur discusses the realities of building a sustainable business on the Internet and why a few free tips from a Website won’t be enough to show you the way. MyWifeQuitHerJob.com A passion for marketing honesty. Truth in marketing shouldn’t be an oxymoron. One blogger writes a manifesto for honesty and truthfulness in marketing that should make everyone proud. TweakYourBiz Customer RelationsHow to keep your customers. Be passionate about retaining customers too. Keep your customers if you can and learn why they are moving on if you can’t. Understanding customer retention could save your business. Partners in Excellence Making connections with Webinars. It’s a new and intimate approach. It’s also one tailor made for those interested in increasing interaction with customers. The Webinar’s time has come. Copyblogger Networking TruthsHow to gain access to clients. There’s a reason small business people must have a passion for connecting. They’ll be doing a lot of it. Making those all important connections aren’t easy either. Sometimes you’ve got to “earn your way in.” Chris Brogan Passion won’t help a bad business. Social media is a great way to create a passionate community around your small business. But what if your customers grow dissatisfied with your products or services? Social media will also give them a platform. Carol Roth From Small Business Trends |
Small Business Trends covered a number of sessions from the 
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