Disruption!

What is disruption?

Disruption is something far more significant, especially for brands looking to set themselves apart in competitive markets.

Coined by current Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen in his 1996 book “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail,” innovative disruption refers to the transformation of a product or a service in such a way that it makes it more affordable and more accessible to a wider audience.
These products start at the bottom, catering to a market that cannot afford the more expensive (and more popular) option. But, as in the case of the lure companies, by focusing on the bottom of the market, there is less competition and greater numbers who can afford the product.
One of the most prominent and most vivid examples of disruptive innovation is how smartphones disrupted the laptop market, which in the 1980s disrupted the desktop market, which itself disrupted the mainframe computer.
Disruptors enter the market at the bottom, where people or industries are being underserved, which is a result of the major players in a vertical choosing to go upstream and over-serve the market, often through added features and benefits people cannot use and don't need.

But while they continue to cater to the high end of the market, disruptors slide in and gobble up market share at the bottom, before moving upstream to challenge their biggest competitors as the former's products or services improve in quality, grow in popularity, and suffice as a viable option for even those with more discerning taste.

Use every tool to sell

Today if you asked a typical salesperson how they got their leads, many would answer via the net.  They might say they use e-mail, or Google, or their mobile device.  Funny few say they make good old fashion telephone.  You remember the phone don't you...one ringy dingie, two ringie dingie!  Yes the phone can be your best friend. How about sending out flyers!  You remember those paper things that your company spent a ton of money on.  What about cold calls, the old fashion way of actually seeing a prospect face to face.  Many salespeople are afraid to cold call, they are afraid of rejection. People hate hearing no but I find it refreshing to see my fellow human occupationally and you would be surprised how often that person is happy to see you. You break up the boredom of the day, You provide a break and yes sometimes they might actually want what you have to sell. Anything else you ask, I say thank you cards not thank you e-mails, they are personal and will make that suspect remember you.

OK more to come!

Remember a no is not failure it is an invitation to sell, sell and sell some more!

The power of a Thank You card!

How many of you have gotten a thank you card recently? How many of you have sent them? Think about it, were you not pleasantly surprised to get it? I am not an agent of the US Postal Service, I am just a veteran salesperson who knows that this little bit of kindness can go a long way.  You may not sell that person, but I bet that person will remember you. When you talk to a customer and he gives you a referral, thank  them! If you find a suspect, thank them. I bet your competitors will not do this.  Yes they send an e-mail thank you but it can not hold water to a personal thank you card signed by you. You took just a bit more time, who do you think they will call first!

Thank you notes work!!!

More to come and remember if you want me to speak to your sales people, ask me!

How do you get leads?

Leads, every salesperson wants them and most do not seem to want to work to get them. It is always nice to get as one of my old bosses use to say a blue bird but those do not just drop from the sky. If you just wait like many sales people do they are often the losers and the first to be let go. You can only kiss ass for so long and someday someone will ask your boss what the heck is that person doing? I always say don't worry about that time coming and go aggressively after leads. How can you get them you ask? First check your existing customers for quick upgrade sales.  Second, go and check old quotes perhaps from the last salesperson in your territory and call those former leads. I was recently called by a customer that had rejected me over a year ago and now he asked me if I wanted to bid on his business.  That was not quite a blue bird but close.  You just never know you have to keep trying.  A majority of salespersons do not ever follow up but statistics show it could take five or more calls to close the deal. Do not get down, do not take no as the final answer sometimes it is just the beginning to a sale.  By the way, if you get that sale, ask that new customer if they know of others and if they give  you some names, thank them and send a thank you card.  Yes I said thank you card, they work!

OK more to come soon.

Joe

Plan your work

It is not easy to sell, trust me I know after thirty plus years of doing it but the basics are always the same. Yes you can use the net and you can e-mail but the time tested means of getting leads to me never changes. You havge to learn your territory first then you have to see if you have any customers in that territory. If you have customers and are not forbideden to meet them then set up an appointment and go see them. Introduce yourself as their new representative and see how they are doing and if they have any concernes. I think you will find that most of those customers are happy to see you and do have questions about their service. I often found that sales opportunities sprung forth from those meetings and the opportunity to get to know your contact and them to know you. I often found that once they got to trusting you they will tell you many thngs about your new territory and potential leads. Take that contact out to lunch, get to know him or her and usually good things will follow.
More to come

Joe

New info from Google and such...

"In a Google Hangout, Google’s John Mueller said that Google preferred short URLs. You should not go over 2,000 characters in your URLs. [...]

There are lots of exceptions there. Different factors that come into play, but everything else being equal, if you have a shorter one and a longer one, we will try to pick the shorter one."

Another tid bit: “Sitewide links in the footer or header of a website do not have much influence.”

"Titles [...] are important for SEO. They are used as a ranking factor. Of course, they are definitely used as a ranking factor but it is not something where I’d say the time you spend on tweaking the title is really the best use of your time.

So that is something where if you are focusing only on titles in SEO, if your SEO agency work is essentially going to people’s sites and say we will strip out all titles and rewrite them to include all the relevant keywords and you will rank ten places higher, that is not going to happen."

For years now, Google’s knee-jerk response to its frequent regulatory entanglements has been to point a finger north: It’s Microsoft’s fault!
For good reason. The Redmond software giant has actively stirred the pot in several legal cases against Google search, in both the U.S. and Europe, through its own lobbying and the dogged consumer advocacy group FairSearch.
Maybe not anymore.
In December, Microsoft quietly removed its financial support from FairSearch, an organization behind multiple legal threats to Google, including the pending one in the European Union.
“We routinely evaluate our participation in industry organizations and decided not to continue our membership in FairSearch,” a Microsoft spokesman said.
Thomas Vinje, a rep for FairSearch, said: “While we appreciate Microsoft’s contribution while a member, the work of our coalition continues unabated.”
Microsoft joined FairSearch shortly after the group’s founding in 2010. Since then, the consumer organization, a reliable attack dog on competition issues involving Google, has often been described as a front group for the software company that makes perennial second-place search engine Bing.
Recently, Microsoft’s policy efforts have focused more on data security and privacy issues, such as the heated Safe Harbor ruling in the EU. Its severance from FairSearch may indicate new lobbying priorities, or even warming ties between the once very bitter rivals. In Europe, at least, more of the legal pressure on Google has come from the German media and telecom than from Microsoft.
Clearly the change shows a softer posture from Microsoft. Three years ago, the company launched its infamous “Scroogled” holiday ad campaign that targeted Google for its shopping ads — and kicked dirt in Google’s eyes for two years. Even today, the public assault, orchestrated by former Clinton aide Mark Penn, leaves Mountain View bitter.
In some ways, Microsoft’s withdrawal from the group is a blow to Google, as it can no longer pin its troubles on a big competitor. Still, Google has no shortage of foes ready to call its search engine a monopoly: FairSearch is backed by several European and U.S. companies, including Oracle, Expedia and TripAdvisor. That said, the group has lost one of its more prominent financial backers — a boost for Google.
FairSearch is a formal complainant active* in the existing European Union antitrust case charging Google for abusing its search position in its shopping product, as well as a complainant in the EU investigation into Android.
While it may be spending less to go after Google, Microsoft isn’t fully out of the game. It remains a formal complainant in the EU shopping antitrust case, which Microsoft entered in 2011.

More to come.....................................................................

Brochures and cards and more!

Most of my customers do not know but we have been in the multi-media arena since 1994. With that said, we have created brochures, business cards and folders for customers.  If you want to brand yourself, why not go all the way, brochures, and business cards that match your new web site all from one source "US"  Yes we can create that neat web site but why not have more! Give us a shout and we can give you potentially a total solution for $5000.00 or less! One call, one source, one company with over twenty four years of experience.  Call Rossini.com at 913-244-6132 or visit www.rossini.com.

More to come!