What is Database Marketing?

Database marketing is the development of your customer and prospect database as a marketing tool. It is gathering information about your buyers and prospective buyers and using this knowledge to market on a more targeted level. Database marketing is mass marketing, conducted on a deeper, more personal level. Although you may never meet all of your customers, you'll identify their motives for buying, and apply these indicators to large populations to reach individuals or companies who display similar characteristics.

The result: You sell to a targeted audience. You get to know your customer's name and business. Your marketing database helps you develop a highly accurate customer profile. It helps you to better understand your customer's business. You'll identify the key contacts in your marketplace and focus your efforts on the decision makers.

Database Marketing is Customer-Centric Marketing. A well-constructed database gives you extra power and flexibility to support all your marketing efforts:

• Relationship Marketing. It's knowing your customers in-depth. You address their specific needs and wants in your communications. You learn what, when and how they buy.
• One-To-One Marketing. Capture detailed demographic business and technology data on an individual basis at both the site and enterprise. Reach key buying contacts by name and job function with a personal message targeted to their interests.
• Database Integration. Once you know your customers’ needs and match your product to them, you overlay your data to other databases to find other customers with similar needs.
• Loyalty Marketing. Create an ongoing exchange with your customers that carries beyond the sale. It instills confidence and encourages the sale of related products and reorders.
• Targeted Marketing. Identify your best customers and treat them as individuals who deserve your special attention.

What's the Point of Database Marketing?

• It's relevant to the customer. You reach customers who find your products and services relevant to their needs. Give extra care to service questions and new sales propositions.
• It's informative. Targeted messages are read! You're not only selling a product, you're providing information specific to the customer's or prospect's market. If there's interest, there's no perception of an unwanted sales call or unwanted mail.
• It's more efficient use of your marketing dollars. The money invested in creating a database will return dividends as you promote fewer “suspected” buyers and reach more “prospective” buyers. Customers tell you who they are and what their preferences are.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

SUCCESS Magazine

Anyone interested in a magazine about the personal development industry will be interested in knowing that SUCCESS Magazine will be launching in March 2008. Below is the release with full information. I hope you find this useful.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ
----------------------------------------------------

SUCCESS
Magazine

What Achievers Read

For Immediate Release CONTACT:

Rachel Levy Konik

212.255.8455 ext. 235

RachelK@rosengrouppr.com

New Owners Promise to Deliver SUCCESS

Iconic Magazine Announces New Editorial Direction

~ Industry Veteran Darren Hardy Selected to Helm the Publication~

DALLAS— Targeting the red-hot $11 billion personal-development industry, SUCCESS Magazine will relaunch in March 2008 with a new owner and publishing team.

VideoPlus, L.P., which acquired the rights to the title earlier this year, has named Darren Hardy publisher and editorial director. The new editorial direction marks a return to the magazine’s early publishing roots, providing entrepreneurs and small businesses with the tools and information they need to achieve their goals, dreams and ambitions.

Launched in 1891 by Orison Swett Marden as a personal-development magazine, SUCCESS has been informing and inspiring achievers for more than a century. Through the years, the publication has been led by several renowned personal-development authors and editors, including Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone and Og Mandino. The publication’s previous incarnation went head-to-head with general-interest business magazines at a time when the entire industry was retreating.

Under its new owners, SUCCESS will draw on a strong heritage and foothold in the personal-development industry. VideoPlus is the industry leader providing sales tools, magazines, videos and conferences to the direct selling industry.

“Thanks to champions like Oprah Winfrey and others, the personal-development industry has experienced massive growth during the last several years,” said Stuart Johnson, VideoPlus president and CEO. “Today, there are entire aisles in the book stores devoted to self-motivational titles, but there is no magazine exclusively devoted to the topic. SUCCESS will fill the void, providing readers with compelling editorial content and tools that give them a competitive advantage in achieving their personal and professional goals.”

Johnson selected Hardy to lead the SUCCESS magazine publishing team because of “his proven leadership and experience in interactive media and the personal-development industry.”

“SUCCESS drifted off its core-value proposition the last decade or so,” Hardy said. “We intend to make SUCCESS the foremost trusted resource for new ideas, resources and inspiration for today’s striving entrepreneurs and small-business owners. With the expertise, brain trust and client base that VideoPlus enjoys in the personal-development industry, we are confident that we will be successful with the new SUCCESS magazine.”

Hardy brings top management skills and editorial vision to the magazine. Before joining SUCCESS, Hardy held executive positions at two personal-development-based television networks: He lead an affiliate of The People’s Network; and was President of TSTN.com, The Success Training Network (no affiliation with SUCCESS magazine). Hardy has been the President/CEO or private-equity investor in several other multimedia companies.

Hitting newsstands March 4, 2008, SUCCESS will retail for $5.95. It will be published bimonthly and distributed nationally by Curtis Circulation with an interim rate base of 100,000. Targeting well-educated professionals between 30 and 55, SUCCESS aims to make consumers more successful by providing personal-development content from well-respected names in the industry as well as leading CEOs and entrepreneurs who exemplify success through personal-development principles. Editorial feature sections will include Business, Relationships, Wealth, Well-Being and Making a Difference.

About SUCCESS magazine

SUCCESS, published bimonthly, is designed specifically to serve the growing entrepreneur, home-based and small-business markets. SUCCESS features personal development thought leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs and other achievers with practical advice, ideas, tips and training on leadership, goal setting, time management, selling, motivation and much more. All in one beautifully designed, easy-to-read magazine. www.SUCCESSmagazine.com

About Video Plus

VideoPlus, L.P., in Lake Dallas, Texas, a Dallas suburb, is a vertically integrated media and marketing communications company founded in 1987 by Stuart Johnson. It provides innovative, turn-key, concept-to-completion solutions for small- and large-business growth. Internationally recognized clients rely on its customized video, audio and print products to increase customer acquisition and revenue. VideoPlus, L.P., creates, produces, masters and replicates CDs, DVDs and DualDiscs and on-site full-color printing services. Its magazine division publishes several national newsstand magazines, including Success from Home and Empowering Women. Internationally, VideoPlus, L.P., delivers products in more than 15 languages in countries around the world and has a sales office in the United Kingdom and a distribution facility in Poland. www.VideoPlus.com

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Do You Have Too Many People?

Many businesses have evolved without putting much emphasis on cleaning up processes to make them as efficient as possible or on hiring the best people possible. Both of these often lead to having too many employees because the company has had to deal with inadequate productivity by hiring more people to compensate. Look at your processes and your people and determine to what extent this has occurred or is occurring in your company. Having too many people is a significant detriment to the bottom line.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Focus On Doing Things Right

Too much emphasis solely on the bottom line can create an environment where bad decisions are made too frequently. An overemphasis on profitability can cause managers and others to focus so much on the short-term that the decisions they make are actually detrimental to the long-term performance of the company. Try to instill a mentality that calls for a balance between a focus on the bottom line and on the long-term health of the organization. Taking a pure bottom line approach to management has caused more than a few organizations to struggle over time. Don't get caught in a strong bottom line at all costs mind set.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Ask Your Employees

Employees can be your single best resource for suggesting changes to the way things are done. Since they are the front-line contact with customers, sales people especially often know a lot about how customers view your business. And your sales people often have excellent ideas about how to make processes better and more efficient. Try to create an environment where employees are expected to make suggestions about improving things. Avoid suggestion boxes or do away with them since they rarely are effective and they imply that not everyone should participate in making the business better. Actively ask employees for their input about what is working and what isn't working. Ask them to provide suggestions about how they would make those things that aren't working better, especially as they relate to enhancing the customers’ experiences in doing business with your company. It is important to act on or respond to all suggestions. Obviously not all suggestions will be appropriate, but employees need to understand why their suggestions won't work. For the suggestions that are appropriate, take action and include employees in the process of implementing changes when possible. The important thing to keep in mind is that employees represent a wealth of potential ideas about how to make your business better.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Qualified prospects are worth their weight in gold

Prospects may not be consciously aware of their need for a product. A well-planned sales presentation can help your prospect determine his or her needs. If the need is already determined, this will obviously shorten the time you need to close the sale.

Of more importance is the size of the need or more precisely, the size of the potential sale. Not all prospects who have a need for a product are equal. A good prospecting system will determine this factor. Some method of sorting prospects must be employed when the number is too high for contacts to be made in a reasonable period of time. Is there money available in the prospect's budget? All too often this matter is not discussed until the sales presentation stage. Whenever possible, you should try to discover financial information. Often salespeople do not think of credit until they attempt to close the sale. Then the credit check kills it.

Does your prospect have the authority to buy? The prospects who have the authority to buy may be either hidden or inaccessible. This is the number one problem in prospecting medium- and large-sized firms. To discover who can actually sign the order may be very time-consuming.

You can develop your own strategies for identifying those with the power to buy. For example, you can paint a picture that puts those blocking access to the buyer, the receptionist or lower-level executives, in a precarious position. That is, suggest that if the person with authority to buy were to find out that you were denied access, they could be in trouble because the firm would have lost a significant benefit.

You can also consider these other factors when qualifying prospects. Consider the level of service demanded by the prospect. Some prospects ask for special services far in excess of what their purchases justify. Keep a close watch on the sales figures. Some clients are barely profitable or even loss producers. You may choose to concentrate only on prospects with high-volume potential.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

New Methods For Getting Introduced to Prospects

It has always both been a challenge and absolutely vital for salespeople to generate strong relationships. However, in recent years, this challenge has become even greater. Phone calls to prospects go to voicemail, direct mail pieces are immediately disposed, and unsolicited e-mails are deleted. The best way to approach a prospective buyer is unquestionably through an introduction. So how does one find the right person to introduce them?

Let’s say that a salt salesman wishes to contact snow plowing businesses. A tire salesman has a relationship with such a business. The salt salesman requests the tire salesman introduce him to that snow plowing contact. Once the introduction is agreed upon, the salt salesman pays a fee to the tire salesman and receives the proper contact. Wouldn’t a system like that be great? Well, the good news is that there are now new systems available that go beyond traditional sales lead portals.

For instance, Salesconx (www.salesconx.com) is the first-of-its-kind Web portal enabling sales professionals to monetize existing relationships and build new ones with key decision makers. With Salesconx, you can leverage your relationships to earn money and gain access to decision makers within your industry in three simple steps: search connections to grow your business, purchase connections to people you want to do business with and make money by selling your own connections.

Salesconx professionals will only introduce their contacts to sales associates who meet their standards. To ensure the reputability of contacts using Salesconx, members are subject to a qualification process. If you’re interested in finding another method for getting introduced to the kinds of leads you’re looking for, check out this new generation of lead sharing.

Sales Reps Need a Plan

Selling requires a solid plan of attack. Most sales reps are not very good at developing and remaining focused on a plan that guides them through their sales year. An effective way to enhance the efforts of sales reps is to require an annual sales plan that focuses on current and prospective customers and how the rep will strengthen existing relationships and foster new ones.

Specifically, the plan should include the rep's sales and gross profit goals for the year along with a detailed listing of current customers and a plan for penetrating those accounts more deeply. In addition to current customers, it is imperative that such a plan address prospects as well. Again, the plan should list specific target accounts along with a specific plan of action for fostering a relationship with them. Also, sales reps are often their own worst enemies in terms of time management. A weekly time management plan should be a part of the overall plan and should include an allocation of the rep's time to the various activities required. It can even be as specific as allocating administration, face-to-face sales, telephone appointment setting and proposal writing to certain times of certain days. But keep in mind that it is difficult to stay on this schedule exactly and the rep will need to adjust accordingly. However, the point in developing such a plan is to force the rep to become more disciplined in his/her approach to selling.

If the rep is in a territory making calls, it is often helpful to create a routing plan that directs the rep through the territory on specific days and weeks. Again, there will be deviations from this plan, but it can help significantly in getting reps out of the office and into the field.

Without a plan, sales reps tend to wander aimlessly at times. With a good plan that has some discipline built into it by the rep, the chances for success increase dramatically. Sales reps are notorious for burning time in the office or in a car or airplane. Haphazard routing and poor time management contribute to this significantly.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Bring Trainers In-House

When sending a number of employees to a specific training session, consider bringing a trainer to your location to conduct the training. Many companies that provide training services will be more than willing to send a trainer to your location if enough employees are involved. In some cases, this can be as few as 3 or 4 employees, but a more likely cutoff would be closer to 6 employees. There are at least two advantages to having the trainer come to you. First, the session can be geared specifically to your business and second you will save the travel expenses associated with multiple employees going elsewhere for the training. Of course you will be asked to pay the travel expenses for the trainer. When the training session is priced such that it is not significantly more than sending employees away for the training, you will realize significant savings.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Lost Customers and Profitability

Losing customers is generally a symptom of problems somewhere in the organization that need to be addressed. Every customer that goes elsewhere takes a piece of your bottom line with them. We stress customer service so heavily because of this fact. Customer service is a bottom line issue. When management has the attitude that "we can replace that customer with another one" or "we have plenty of customers", the company has a mentality that runs counter to optimal bottom line performance. Do you track your customer base and look at purchase history and average length of tenure as a customer? Analyzing your customer base will often uncover problems that need to be corrected. Take every customer seriously and look at them as a piece of your bottom line. Keep in mind that businesses erode their bottom lines by not paying close enough attention to customer retention activities and the level of service provided.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Sales Training in the Brief

There should be no question in a sales manager’s or business owner’s mind that sales people need to be trained, or even re-trained, in order to be more successful in their sales career. As time goes on, even seasoned sales veterans forget the basics or have never learned some of the newer techniques required in today’s challenging markets. The problem is that it’s difficult to find the time to sit through full-day training classes or long eLearning sessions when all that may be needed is a brief overview of a specific selling skill (i.e., how to cold call or how to close).

I just developed a set of training tools that can help solve this issue. I call them Sales Snippets and they are a set of 10 sales training modules each covering a different aspect of selling; including cold calling, listening skills, qualifying prospects, negotiating, handling objections, closing, and more. Each Sales Snippet is anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes in length and includes an automated slide presentation with training instructions provided by myself, Russ Lombardo. The best part is, the entire library of 10 Sales Snippets costs only $29.95, and you can return over and over again to view (or re-view) any of the training modules you'd like.

Just click on this link to learn more and, if interested, to purchase your Sales Snippets: http://www.peaksalesconsulting.com/Sales_Snippets_Training.htm There's even a free sample you can preview.

If you are new to sales, these sales training modules will serve as excellent primers to help build your sales career. If you are a seasoned sales veteran, then these modules will help as refreshers or as ways to introduce some new methods needed in today's changing sales environment. And, if you are a sales manager or business owner, imagine the benefit of offering your sales team these quick, simple and economical online sales tools to help them become more effective and successful.

Good Luck & Good Selling!

Russ

Review Your Prices Now

This is a friendly reminder that your pricing structure should be revisited regularly. Too many businesses let prices remain unchanged without review. Keep in mind that your costs are increasing and at some point those increases need to be covered. Modest price increases are not very often an issue with customers as long as they are not too frequent or too large. And in some industries or markets, competitive pressures might be forcing prices down somewhat. Be careful not to panic and make drastic price cuts unless absolutely warranted. Usually modest reductions to meet a deteriorating price environment are called for. Look for true competitive advantages your firm might enjoy. If you believe that demand for your products or services will not be negatively affected by leaving them where they are or even by increasing them, don't feel compelled to reduce prices. Obviously you will need to understand your market and competition very well before making pricing decisions. One thing to keep in mind is the fact that your initial pricing strategy might have been incorrect. If so, price adjustments up or down will be in order.

Good Luck & Good Selling
Russ

A Valuable Source for New, Quality Sales Leads

Finding leads is a tough task. Finding quality leads is even more challenging. I want to share with you a service that you might find very useful for yourself, your sales team and even your business. It's called Jigsaw, and is a very unique way of finding leads that were created by other sales people, like yourself. So you know they are good.

Jigsaw is an online business directory that allows users to find, collect and trade business contacts through a subscriber built database. This directory has proven popular with recruiters, marketers, and sales professionals looking to expand their business contacts. Jigsaw makes for a kind of electronic rolodex, assembling information found on most basic business cards, including corporate email addresses, business address, and in some cases, direct phone numbers for individual contacts. To date Jigsaw has compiled 6 Million complete business contacts through the user community of 235,000+ mostly sales and marketing professionals. The Jigsaw community adds 10,000-15,000 contacts each day.

The directory also offers company information like address, website and phone numbers. Users can also search for companies by industry and geography, number of employees, and by Fortune 500 or 1000 ranking. The site’s fans see Jigsaw as filling a valuable niche, allowing sales professionals to bypass gatekeepers to contact prospects directly. Aptly named by Inc Magazine as “The World’s Biggest Rolodex.” Jigsaw is helping address the data concerns of companies and individuals. Whether it be avoiding single thread deals by mapping accounts, cleaning current CRM databases, or generating a list of target customers, Jigsaw is helping professional execute more efficiently through higher quality data.

The pricing is very attractive as well. You can either Play (earn points for every lead you post on Jigsaw) or Pay (for as little as $25. per month). You can even earn points by referring other users and challenging data that you believe is incorrect or not current. Not bad for access to over 6 million business contacts.

For more information on Jigsaw, click HERE.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Sales Compensation

Compensating sales personnel in a manner that rewards them appropriately and that truly provides an incentive to stretch to higher levels of performance is sometimes a difficult balancing act. Some business owners and managers are reluctant to structure sales compensation plans that could allow sales reps to earn significant incomes. I believe that it is important to build sales compensation plans that reflect the effort expended. For example, to pay sales reps a straight salary, with a small bonus or none at all, doesn't really take into account the rep's effort. But paying sales reps for achieving certain thresholds or targets and creating a significant payout for exceeding reasonable, but demanding, expectations provides for a direct relationship between effort expended and compensation. It is important to avoid paying sales reps on a "coupon clipping" basis (this simply means that reps are paid handsomely regardless of their performance). Developing a sound sales compensation structure is dependent on the type of business you operate. But don’t be afraid to pay sales personnel for overachieving. And avoid over-rewarding sales reps that don't stretch to reach high levels of performance.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Focus On Numbers and Relationships

Often times sales people do not do an effective job of generating enough sales calls and/or developing relationships. Selling, in its simplest form can be broken down into these two elements. If sales personnel fail to call on enough prospects, there is little chance for sufficient growth. And if they fail to work hard on developing strong relationships with customers, there is little chance of any sort of loyalty from the customer base. It is important to focus on and manage the number of calls being made as well as the development of strong, long-term relationships.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Sales People Must Be Directed

Too many sales representatives are left to "manage" their own efforts. It is critical that sales efforts be directed and that very clear expectations and goals be established for sales personnel. We observe far too many sales people "doing their own thing" and determining how they will best attack their assigned territories. In too many cases, there is little or no organization, limited calls being made on prospects and too much time being spent in the "comfort zone" of existing customers. It is vital to establish call requirements, sales and gross profit requirements, territory coverage expectations and methodology in terms of selling techniques (aka selling skills).

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Put Some Structure into Your Selling Efforts

Sales are a critical function in most organizations and there should be some structure built into the selling efforts of the organization. Setting a minimum number of calls to be made, routing sales reps through their territories to maximize coverage and having a systematic selling methodology are but a few of the things that should be in place in order to get the most from your selling efforts. Sales people are typically not as organized as they should be and putting structure into their daily activities will help keep them organized and focused on what is important.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Is Your Marketing Approach Stale?

Sometimes businesses do something for so long that it becomes habitual. Marketing is one area where there is a need for constant evaluation of what is working and what isn't. Do things that used to work well not seem to work so well anymore? Perhaps they need some fine-tuning or they need to be scrapped and replaced with something that is more effective. Look at your sales approach. Is it keeping up with changes in the market? And look hard at your promotional efforts. In today’s ever-changing world, promotional techniques can become outdated almost overnight.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Sales is a Function of Numbers and Relationships

There are at least two critical factors in selling more.... increasing the number of contacts and strengthening the relationships with customers. The sales game tends to be a function of numbers and relationships. The more prospects and current customers contacted and the stronger the relationships, the more gets sold. While this is not always the case, it certainly holds true in most cases. Of course the quality of the contact made is important. Also, the service delivered to the customer has a lot to do with the strength of the relationship. Nevertheless, sales people have a lot to do with both the number of contacts made and the viability of the relationship. Managing contacts and relationship development is an important function. Is your company focusing on both?

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Place Minimum Call Requirements On Sales Reps

In part, developing accountability among sales people means putting some minimum number of calls expectations in place. Simply put, sales reps should be expected to make a certain number of calls each week. While selling involves a lot more than making numerous calls, there is a definite correlation in most cases between the number of calls made and sales generated. We find that businesses too often either don't have minimum call requirements or they set the number too low. Establish a minimum that is achievable, but forces the rep to "stretch".

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Treat Every Customers As If They Are the Only One

Some businesses believe that, because they have many customers, they can deliver a level of service that is unacceptable. This attitude seems to prevail in larger businesses, but can certainly be found in small businesses as well. Every customer should be treated as if they are your only customer. Treating a customer as if they are disposable because they are one of many is a sure-fire way of chasing away good customers. Pay close attention to how your employees are interacting with customers. What kinds of messages are they sending them?

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

Expect Employees To Be "Team Players"

In some organizations, employees are allowed to be openly negative and critical. While managers and owners cannot mandate how employees feel about their jobs or employer, they can expect employees to work well as a team and keep criticism of the Company and fellow employees to a minimum. Negative talk and uncooperative attitudes must be discouraged and managed. And in a sales environment, it doesn’t take much for a customer to get wind of a sales rep’s negative attitude, which yields negative thoughts about your company. In other words, employees must clearly understand that, regardless of their feelings, they are expected to work well with others, have a positive attitude as they go about their jobs and keep criticisms to themselves or only discuss them with their manager. They must never express negative feelings to customers or prospects. Employees that are allowed to remain negative and uncooperative will have a negative influence on those around them, as well as your client base. If an employee simply cannot stop being negative and uncooperative, it might be best if they looked for employment elsewhere.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ

View Sales Reps as Profit Centers

An approach that can work well in assessing how effective sales personnel are is to maintain a profit and loss statement on each sales rep. Generally, this is not a complex thing to do. Each rep generates sales and gross profit. And each rep has expenses such as base salary, commission, benefits, bonus, office expenses such as rent and utilities, telephone expense, support expenses such as a portion of secretarial and clerical employees' wages and benefits, travel and entertainment, etc. By tracking sales, gross profit and expenses for a sales rep, you will be able to determine how "profitable" a particular sales rep is. This is valuable information in evaluating the effectiveness of sales reps and marketing efforts. The danger in evaluating only sales and gross profit numbers is that some sales reps are much more expensive than others depending on compensation and spending habits. Beware, however, that excellent sales reps sometimes are more effective because they spend more on things such as cellular telephones in following up with customers and travel and entertainment due to more proactive contact with customers. Others are wasteful in how they use both of these "tools". And still others do not use these "tools" enough. Tracking these expenses on an individual profit and loss statement can uncover many of these issues.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ