.: Alicia Smith Profile and Articles
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1). Reducing Customer Resistance to Your Product or ServiceResistance has to do with putting up blocks that prevent us from doing, being, or accomplishing what we want for our business. There are many reasons for feeling resistance including fear of new things or change, fear of failure or success or even fear of not being perfect.
When we resist things, sometimes we miss out on opportunities - opportunities to work with new people, attract new customers, or even pursue a new product or service idea which could catapult us to new levels of success.
2). Punctuality in Business: What it Says About You
"Nothing inspires confidence in a business man sooner than punctuality, nor is there any habit which sooner saps his reputation than that of being always behind time." (W. Mathews)
Being tardy can be a serious marketing blunder for today's business owner. From being late to meetings with a colleague or client, to not delivering your product or service on time, tardiness speaks volumes about who you are and how you do business.
3). Marketing with Integrity
Playing games can be a lot of fun, but in business they can take an ugly turn when they turn into head games. How we play games, or play at games, often reflects our true nature as to how we do business.
We always have a choice. We can make it a win-lose or a win-win option. Playing head games in business involves lying, cheating, hidden agendas, one-upmanship, customer or employee exploitation, and the like.
4). Necessary Tasks You May Want to Delegate
As a business owner, time is of the essence. Running a business is demanding. You are either performing the day-to-day administrative work or you're working in your business, attending to your customers or clients. What is the best use of your time? The answer is simple. Your time should be spent doing what you do best. The day-to-day administrative tasks can be delegated.
5). Communicating Our Attitude
The goal of successful marketing is to create long lasting relationships with your prospects by marketing your business with passion. When you're not excited about what you're doing, no one else will be either. Our passion for what we do in business is communicated through our attitude. Our attitude comes shining through in a variety of ways. How can you create an attitude that paves the way to success for you and your business?
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6). Games are a Reflection of Behavior as Told by John Satta
You are standing on a small stage yelling, “What's the name of the game?!”
“Win as much as you can!!!” comes roaring back.
“Who's responsible for your score?!”
“I am!!”
The audience is composed of ninety men, all prisoners in a federal maximum security prison.
One more thing - you're a woman.
For three years, Alicia volunteered every Thursday at FCI (Federal Correctional Institute) in Bastrop, Texas-
“I used my skills as a corporate trainer to help these men learn to shift their perspective on themselves and the world.
7). Avoid Becoming a Zombie
At any given time in our life, we can feel like a zombie. A zombie is someone who is just going through the motions - uninspired and unmotivated. To be sure, this isn't the recipe for success. This type of attitude doesn't serve us well. When we change our attitude or approach to life, everything changes. So what can we do to create a different outcome for ourselves? Here are a few suggestions.
8). Marketing Quandaries
Being in a quandary prevents you from moving forward in developing and marketing your business. When we're in a quandary, we are in a state of perplexity and doubt. We don't know how to move forward to accomplish those things that are crucial to attracting clients and growing our business. One of the first things we need to recognize about being in a quandary is that we are, in fact, in one! There are a number of easy, simple things that you can start doing today to get yourself out of that place of being stuck.
9). Moving Beyond Self-Sabotage
Self-sabotage is one key factor that keeps our business from moving forward. We can sabotage ourselves in a variety of ways. There are many ways we can prevent ourselves from enjoying the success we desire. To ensure that our businesses grow and prosper, it is vital that we learn how to push through unproductive attitudes. Here are some tips to help you move beyond self-sabotage.
10). Avoid Being Vague
We are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages daily…on television and the radio, on the internet, in magazines and newspapers, on billboards and other signs, and even at the bottoms and on the backs of receipts. The world is, indeed, a very noisy place. And in order to get heard, we need our marketing messages to be clear and concise.
A vague message is one that isn't easily understood - it doesn't speak to a potential customer or client.
11). Over Delivering Provides Big Results
Over promising is a problem only when you under deliver. There are a number of ways that you can overdeliver to your customers or prospects, and as a result create a win-win situation for you both. They will be provided with some additional value, while you will be upgrading your learning around a particular issue, adding another product or service to your business, or even increasing the mastery level of your craft.
12). How to Recognize, Learn from and Correct the Most Common Blunders
What is a Blunder?
Definition of Blunder:
Main Entry: 1blun·der
Function: verb
1: to move unsteadily or confusedly
2: to make a mistake through stupidity, ignorance, or carelessness transitive senses
3: to utter stupidly, confusedly, or thoughtlessly
4: to make a stupid, careless, or thoughtless mistake in
- blun·der·er / noun
- blun·der·ing·ly / adverb
Source: Merriam Webster
First, why even focus on the blunders? Isn't that kind of a negative focus?
The reality is that we all make mistakes.
13). Marketing Hesitation Costs Dearly
Timing is everything. Hate to be late? The early bird gets the worm.
Hesitation, when it comes to marketing, can mean the difference between making a sale and walking away empty handed. Success in many things we do is dependent on how fast we can process information in order to do something. Response time can be critical when you're trying to start a business and while you're trying to stay on top of one that is already in full swing.
14). Rise Above Cattiness
Cattiness is something no one ever wants to be accused of doing. But the reality is, at one time or another you've probably engaged in it, and most likely, you'll do it again. This trait can include any number of unfortunate behaviors from not saying what we really intend to say, to saying things in a harsh tone of voice. It also includes gossiping, cynical remarks, and on a grander scale, outright rudeness.
15). Lone Rangers Suffer without Tonto
A lone ranger is someone who prefers working in solitude or isolation. Sometimes life circumstances can call for us to adopt this attitude. When it comes to marketing our business, however, adopting this mentality can prevent you from achieving the success that you desire.
There are many reasons why people operate in isolation. Some do not know there are better or easier ways, while others prefer to work alone because of certain personality characteristics.
16). Customer Service Policy Geared For Excellence
One unhappy customer will tell the world about inferior service while a happy customer rarely tells a soul. Your challenge as a business owner is to create a buzz so positive about your products and services that your clients and customers will become your raving fans and will tell the world about you!
Your lesson for today is to put pen to paper and write a rock solid customer service policy for your business.
17). Brand Components
Your brand is the culmination of everything about you and your business. It is how people come to know you. It is your business name, logo design or other symbol that identifies your goods and services. It's what makes you different from everyone else in business. What are some of the components that come to make up your brand?
1. Who I am. Your brand is a representation of who you are, including your talents, gifts, needs, values, and integrity.
18). Kvetching Behavior and How it Hinders Success
Kvetching is the Yiddish word for complaining, hand to the forehead, why is this happening to me, complaining, griping, and mental misery. In marketing it's always time for us to take a serious look at how our attitude affects our business. Studies show that you become the words you speak, and that the difference between people who succeed and those who fail is their ATTITUDE.
19). Overcoming Perfectionism
Perfectionism can get in the way of building or marketing a successful business. It can prevent us from moving ahead quickly or from taking advantage of business opportunities. We set ourselves up with unrealistic expectations or goals, which can be damaging to us personally or professionally. Striving for perfection can damage our self-esteem because we never feel like we are good enough.
20). Masterful Business People
Mediocrity is all about doing business in a commonplace, unexceptional or unremarkable way. But, to be successful in today's competitive business environment, business owners must be much more. Masterful business owners know that they must continually look for ways to innovate and expand their offerings, while delivering exceptional service to their current and potential clients.
21). Develop Loyal Customers for a Lifetime - part 1 (1 - 10)
Traditional marketing strategies encourage business owners to continually grow their businesses by adding new customers. In today's competitive world of business, it is more important than ever to aim for more transactions with existing customers by using the power of customer follow-up and attention to good service.
These first ten tips will help you in turning your existing customers into walking billboards for your business and loyal customers for a lifetime.
22). Marketing Messages with Add Zest & Appeal
Boring is one thing you can't afford to be when it comes to marketing your business. With more than 3000+ marketing messages pummeling consumers on a daily basis, you need to be more, and do more, if you want to be heard above the racket.
Your marketing message is how you communicate with the public; it needs to be appealing and memorable. In order to do that, consider the concept of the meme.
23). Marketing Without Ego
Our ego can get in the way of marketing our business. From our need to be right, to talking about ourselves incessantly; coming from an attitude of arrogance to getting attached to the outcomes of what we do, these are just some of the ways our ego can get in our way.
If it's all about us, then it isn't about our customers. It's imperative that we are aware of how we conduct our selves and the impact it may be having on our success.
24). Customers Who Rave About You and Your Service
According to customer service studies by marketing gurus of the world, here are the following qualities, which must be present in your life and your business in order to develop raving fan customers who are not just satisfied but completely loyal to you over the long haul.
1. People want you to show an interest in their lives.
You not only know about their business, you know about their families, the hobbies they enjoy, and their life experiences.
25). Succeeding in Business: 15 Ways to Assure You Come Out Ahead
There are a number of things you can do today to create a successful business. The key to success is founded in adopting a positive attitude and investing your time and effort to take consistent daily actions. Here are some great ways to get started.
1. Take action. Successful business owners are people in action. They don't sit around waiting for things to happen.
26). Develop Loyal Customers for a Lifetime - part 2 (11 - 20)
Traditional marketing strategies encourage business owners to continually grow their businesses by adding new customers. In today's competitive world of business, it is more important than ever to aim for more transactions with existing customers by using the power of customer follow-up and attention to good service.
These second ten tips will help you in turning your existing customers into walking billboards for your business and loyal customers for a lifetime.
27). What Make Us Unique and Different
Starting a business can take a lot of time, money, and energy. And because we don't want to completely re-invent the wheel, we often want to copy (legally) other techniques, strategies or processes used by others. While copying others has many benefits, namely using tried and true methods as well as saving time and money, the true success of your business will come from your own uniqueness.
28). Forward Thinkers Stay Ahead of the Curve
What is it like from a marketing perspective to be yesterday's news? We rely on what is tried and true in marketing because it is usually safe, tried, and tested. It saves us time, as well, since we don't have to put on our creativity cap to craft an innovative strategy.
But, there's a certain attractive quality around someone who markets his or her business on the edge.
29). Where Businesses Fall Short
1. No vision. Successful businesses have a clear vision or picture of their business purpose and mission. Your vision serves as a roadmap to help you see where you are today in relationship to where you want to be tomorrow. Your business plan serves as the mechanism that will help you to bridge the gap. When you don't have a clear vision as to why you're in business or where you intend to take your business, it's like taking a road trip without a map.
30). Consistent Marketing Provides Big Rewards
Being inconsistent when it comes to marketing your business can be a recipe for disaster. Nothing is more irritating to a potential customer than inconsistency.
When we consciously create consistent messages, brands, systems and communications, our customers begin to relax and know that we are trustworthy and reliable. This consistency enhances our marketing messages and fuels our marketing machine.
31). Marketing Apathy
Are you suffering from feelings of indifference or a lack of concern when it comes to marketing your business? Do you lack the passion that's necessary to attract customers to your business?
Marketing apathy, characterized by feelings of passiveness, disregard, and a lack of interest is widespread among today's businesses. This attitude is like putting a roadblock between you and your success.
32). Reasons Why We Judge
Judgment is the process of forming an opinion of something by making a comparison. While judgment can play an important role in decisions we must make to live productively, sometimes the thoughts we hold are what prevent us from having what we most desire.
Judgments are based on thoughts we hold about people and things. These thoughts are the filters through which we view our world.
33). Weaknesses of Wishing
When you're starting a business, you might wish for a lot of things, like having more than enough customers or not having to do marketing. But wishing is weak willed, having no momentum behind it. When you wish for something, you're not coming from a place of having a strong vision. Instead, wishes tend to be dreamlike, wispy and not grounded. Wishes are future oriented.
34). Benefits of Virtual Assistance
A virtual assistant is an individual who provides business services to other professionals. They're considered virtual because they perform their services from a remote location. Communications with their clients take place through telephone, fax, email, and snail mail. As a business owner, you can save time, money, and energy by hiring a virtual assistant.
35). Growing Sales Through Creating Connections
Your mission as a business owner is to develop a marketing strategy which offers your potential clients/customers a way to improve their situation in a certain way, solve a problem, provide more value, or open new opportunities for them which will motivate them to pick up the phone and buy from you. This requires that the focus of your marketing plan.
36). Web Site Turn Ons
When you develop a sales brochure, you have a mental checklist of what needs to be in it. You probably look at brochures from other vendors. You get advice from friends and colleagues. You probably also notice the sales flyers you get in the mail. What do you notice? What gets your attention?
A web site for your business has many of the same purposes as a sales brochure.
37). Using the Power of Client Testimonials to Grow Your Business
Client testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools coaches can use. Did you know that they can help you attract new clients, increase customer confidence and generate a positive “buzz” about you and your services? (Actually, those are just a few of their marketing uses.)
Human nature gives testimonials such power because we love discovering what one person thinks of another - even when it's positive! It's the same dynamic that makes gossip so hard to resist.