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	<title>Word of Mouth Marketing For Small Business</title>
	
	<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com</link>
	<description>Word of Mouth Marketing = WOW! + Follow-up + 'Call To Action'</description>
	<pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:22:57 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Case Study In Viral Word of Mouth</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/case-study-in-viral-word-of-mouth/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/case-study-in-viral-word-of-mouth/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:41:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/?p=118</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the past 12 months I&#8217;ve been watching the internet for any truly viral marketing successes so I can use it as a word of mouth case study, and I&#8217;ve finally found one.
It came out in that classic lull that telemarketers, publicists and online marketers always want to take advantage of,  Christmas Day (apologies to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Over the past 12 months I&#8217;ve been watching the internet for any truly viral marketing successes so I can use it as a word of mouth case study, and I&#8217;ve finally found one.</p>
<p>It came out in that classic lull that telemarketers, publicists and online marketers always want to take advantage of,  Christmas Day (apologies to devout Christians.)</p>
<p>Viral marketing means marketing that spreads like a flu epidemic, by passing from one person to many others and from those people to many more again.</p>
<p>It takes planning and skill to make viral marketing explosions happen deliberately.</p>
<p>For example, I&#8217;m on <a href="http://www.aabpe.com/board.html" target="_blank">the Board of Advisors</a> for the American Association of Business Professionals and Entrepreneurs™ (<a href="http://www.WordofMouthMagic.com/resources/aabpe/" target="_blank">AABPE™</a>) that launched Jan 1.</p>
<p>But just look at the comparison here&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://word.webprosperity.com" target="_blank"><img class="size-medium wp-image-120 aligncenter" title="alexa-aabpeword-webprosperity-com" src="http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/alexa-aabpeword-webprosperity-com-300x204.jpg" alt="alexa-aabpeword-webprosperity-com" width="418" height="285" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://word.webprosperity.com" target="_blank">The webprosperity site</a> has raced up. (Remember this scale is <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--  /* Style Definitions */  p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal 	{mso-style-parent:""; 	margin:0cm; 	margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:12.0pt; 	font-family:"Times New Roman"; 	mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 	{size:612.0pt 792.0pt; 	margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; 	mso-header-margin:36.0pt; 	mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; 	mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 	{page:Section1;} --><!--[if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><!   /* Style Definitions */  table.MsoNormalTable 	{mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; 	mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; 	mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; 	mso-style-noshow:yes; 	mso-style-parent:""; 	mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; 	mso-para-margin:0cm; 	mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:10.0pt; 	font-family:"Times New Roman"; 	mso-ansi-language:#0400; 	mso-fareast-language:#0400; 	mso-bidi-language:#0400;} --> <!--[endif]-->logarithmic, which means on a normal graph it would be shooting up even faster like a stunt motorcyclist hitting the ramp.)</p>
<p>Keys to making something go viral really fast online and offline are&#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li>Have an offer that directly matches a market that is just waiting for this</li>
<li>Include immense credibility to give people enough trust so they can act immediately</li>
<li>Make it really easy for people to join</li>
<li>Make it easy, and give incentives, to spread the word (this is where most people go wrong.)</li>
</ul>
<p>In this case all of this is helped along by 3 other features of a product launch&#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li>Signing up is free - okay not my favorite recommendation, but when you want to go viral quickly this is pretty much mandatory.</li>
<li>The January 6 noon Deadline, with a countdown clock - that&#8217;s a reliably brilliant play on scarcity [and they have gone one better by at the last minute extending the deadline by 7 days to Tues Jan 13! Nice one.]</li>
<li>The Social Proof - notice the names of the last 4 people to sign up are listed at the top, often only seconds ago, which makes it much more impactful than most sites where I&#8217;ve seen this.</li>
</ul>
<p>WebProsperity is an internet marketing service I could use if it comes up to scratch, and there are some very, very clever marketers behind this so I&#8217;m watching for what they come up with next.</p>
<p>You can&#8217;t visit the site without a link so here&#8217;s mine so you can check it out&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://word.webprosperity.com">word.webprosperity.com</a></p>
<p>Can you go viral too?</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>Swap &amp; Drop - A Million-Making Networking Tip</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/swap-drop-a-million-making-networking-tip/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/swap-drop-a-million-making-networking-tip/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:39:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Follow-Up]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/?p=108</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the key rules of success has to be &#8216;copy what works.&#8217;
&#8220;Swap &#38; Drop&#8221; is a little known, face-to-face networking method that actually works.
How do I know?
Because Jordan Adler, entrepreneur, trainer, author, networker, and the originator of the term &#8220;Swap &#38; Drop&#8221;, used this exact method to make a connection with someone who knew [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>One of the key rules of success has to be &#8216;copy what works.&#8217;</p>
<p>&#8220;Swap &amp; Drop&#8221; is a little known, face-to-face networking method that actually works.</p>
<p>How do I know?</p>
<p>Because Jordan Adler, entrepreneur, trainer, <a href="http://www.BeachMoney.com" target="_blank">author</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanladler" target="_blank">networker</a>, and the originator of the term &#8220;Swap &amp; Drop&#8221;, used this exact method to make a connection with someone who knew someone, who knew someone, who connected with me.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s how I came to know Jordan in the first place.</p>
<p>But that single Swap and the subsequent Drop didn&#8217;t just lead Jordan to me. It also made him more than a million dollars in the past 3 years alone - from one connection! That&#8217;s the leverage power of networking.</p>
<p>In general Jordan&#8217;s networking skills are earning him well over a million dollars a year. He is still Swapping and Dropping, and he is still growing his business and income.</p>
<p>He is also openly generous in sharing what he does.</p>
<p>&#8220;Swap &amp; Drop&#8221; is as simple as they come, and yet it encapsulates the entire networking mindset.</p>
<p>On the audio below you will hear Jordan say, &#8220;My objective is to start a life-long process.&#8221;</p>
<p>I managed to find time with Jordan Alder to get you inside the mind of this networking million-maker.</p>
<p>Download and save this audio, and listen over and over again. It may seem too simple, yet it is all you need for networking success, and it&#8217;s a mere 10 minutes long&#8230;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.WordofMouthMagic.com/audios/Swap%20And%20Drop%20-%20Jordan%20Adler.mp3" target="_blank">Swap And Drop - Jordan Adler Interview</a></p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Does Your Marketing Compare Well On These 5 Measures?</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/does-your-marketing-compare-well-on-these-5-measures/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/does-your-marketing-compare-well-on-these-5-measures/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:24:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/?p=100</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just finished speaking with a woman who runs her own studio. She is generating 90% of her new clients from Google Adwords.
An impressive result, and one that has kept her business going for the last 3 years, but with diminishing returns.
With the economy falling, and people tightening their budgets, she is scared.
She contacted me [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I just finished speaking with a woman who runs her own studio. She is generating 90% of her new clients from Google Adwords.</p>
<p>An impressive result, and one that has kept her business going for the last 3 years, but with diminishing returns.</p>
<p>With the economy falling, and people tightening their budgets, she is scared.</p>
<p>She contacted me because she realized one thing. She has lots of happy clients&#8230;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>&#8230;But She Is Getting ZERO Referrals!</strong></p>
<p>How does your current marketing compare to word of mouth referral methods on these 5 measures&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>1. How much someone spends the first time they see you (Immediate Profit.)<br />
</strong><br />
People who are referred to you automatically trust you to a greater degree, because of the trust they have with the person who referred them.</p>
<p>This is probably why referred customers tend to spend more than clients brought in by any other marketing method. They have less need to test you out with a small sale first, just to be sure.</p>
<p>(How price sensitive do you think your customers are becoming?)</p>
<p><strong>2. How often they come back (Repeat Sales.)<br />
</strong><br />
Word of mouth methods automatically include follow-up and client retention with the referral generation.</p>
<p>Clients are much more likely to return to you, even if only because they will often be in contact with the person who referred them to you in the first place.</p>
<p>If their experience with you is positive then the discussion about the referral will be a positive one too, perhaps encouraging both parties to want to come back to you again!</p>
<p><strong>3. How often they refer others (Doing Your Marketing For You.)<br />
</strong><br />
Referred clients need much less education on referring others to you. They were referred themselves so they understand a) you accept/want referrals, and b) you will take good care of the person they refer, just like you looked after them.</p>
<p>This measure is so often missed when calculating the value of other forms of marketing, but is absolutely crucial when deciding the lifetime value of what a particular client brings into your business.</p>
<p><strong>4. How effective are the referrals they give you (Quality Customers.)<br />
</strong><br />
Word of mouth clients generally complain less, pay on time more often, and are generally more enjoyable to work with, when compared to clients coming from any other method.</p>
<p>With good education of your best customers, word of mouth and referral methods will maintain and even improve the quality of customers you get.  Therefore, when your very finest clients refer people to you, you end up receiving incredible clients as a bonus, and your overall business goes up a level.</p>
<p><strong>5. The overall profit per customer (The Life-Time Value Bottomline.)<br />
</strong><br />
Just on the basis of the first 4 measures alone no other method of marketing will produce as good a return on your investment as word of mouth referrals.</p>
<p>And&#8230; here&#8217;s the extra kicker!</p>
<p>Even though <a href="http://www.WordofMouthMagicEbook.com/" target="_blank">&#8220;Word of Mouth Magic&#8221;</a> covers many referral marketing methods that require money to get started with, some of them can be done <strong>without even spending a single, solitary cent!</strong></p>
<p>At its simplest, you just need to adapt what you are already doing. For instance, add to your written information on letterheads, emails, website and even invoices, something that lets people know that you get, want and appreciate referrals.</p>
<p>Planting the seeds for a harvest of referrals can often be done at no cost at all.</p>
<p>The woman running the studio knew her current marketing wasn&#8217;t giving her as good a return as referrals. That&#8217;s why she contacted me to discover more.</p>
<p>How well does your current marketing measure up against word of mouth methods?</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>If You Hate Asking For Referrals…</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/if-you-hate-asking-for-referrals/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/if-you-hate-asking-for-referrals/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:40:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Word of Mouth Referrals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/?p=93</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Below is a straight cut and paste of a post by legendary word of mouth sage, Seth Godin. I don&#8217;t even want you to have to click a further link to get to this, it&#8217;s that important.
People often ask me, &#8220;How can I ask for referrals?&#8221;
Actually they are usually also thinking, and sometimes even adding, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Below is a straight cut and paste of a post by legendary word of mouth sage, Seth Godin. I don&#8217;t even want you to have to click a further link to get to this, it&#8217;s that important.</p>
<p>People often ask me, &#8220;How can I ask for referrals?&#8221;</p>
<p>Actually they are usually also thinking, and sometimes even adding, &#8220;It seems so self-serving because it&#8217;s all about what I want. In fact to be honest, business isn&#8217;t that good at the moment, so I need all the buyers I can get. I&#8217;m getting desperate, and I feel like if I ask people for referrals it&#8217;s like begging!&#8221;</p>
<p>Welcome, and all hail Seth Godin&#8230;</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 class="entry-header">Don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;ve got till it&#8217;s gone</h3>
<p><a href="http://www.iwantsandy.com/">IWantSandy</a> is folding, as are a number of web companies. So is that restaurant you loved down the street. Users are outraged. Outraged!</p>
<p>When you find a service or establishment or product that gives you joy, it&#8217;s tempting to keep it to yourself. Perhaps it&#8217;s uncomfortable to recommend it to a friend (after all, you might seem silly) and even more uncomfortable to recommend it to a stranger (after all, you might seem like a shill).</p>
<p>Plenty of people hesitate before spreading the word about a political candidate or a business or a <a href="http://www.natlallergy.com/prod/1502/grossan-hydro-pulse-nasal-sinus-irrigation-system-for-nasal-congestion.html">medical device</a>. We&#8217;re worried that we&#8217;ll look silly, or that the place will end up being too crowded and now we won&#8217;t be able to get in. Or perhaps we&#8217;re concerned about losing our uniqueness&#8230;</p>
<p>Anyway, the outcry that accompanies the closing of one of these businesses should be enough to remind you that your hesitation has a cost.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s simple, I think. In a world where consumers have so much power, we now have two responsibilities:</p>
<ul>
<li>If you don&#8217;t like what an organization stands for, work actively to spread the word and force them to change</li>
</ul>
<p>and</p>
<ul>
<li>If you will miss a product, a service, a book, a site or a professional when they close up shop, stand up, speak up and bring them masses of new business.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>We get what we promote.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/dont-know-what.html" target="_blank">Seth Godin&#8217;s Blog</a> and you can sign up there to get more of his wisdom.</p>
<p>Be what you want others to be - give your own word of mouth, be a networker and a referrer. Live both sides of the referral relationship, and people will end up following your example.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve referred you just now to someone I value, Seth Godin.</p>
<p>Who can you GIVE a referral to - today?</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>A Cautionary Story Of A Financial Adviser</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/a-cautionary-story-of-a-financial-adviser/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/a-cautionary-story-of-a-financial-adviser/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:49:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Word of Mouth Referrals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/?p=90</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What would you think of a financial adviser or stockbroker who had told you to get out of the stockmarket and into cash back in June/July of this year?
Would you be just a little bit pleased with that advice?
Well I absolutely would.
This adviser would have steered me away from a huge chunk of the biggest [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What would you think of a financial adviser or stockbroker who had told you to get out of the stockmarket and into cash back in June/July of this year?</p>
<p>Would you be just a little bit pleased with that advice?</p>
<p>Well I absolutely would.</p>
<p>This adviser would have steered me away from a huge chunk of the biggest stockmarket meltdown in most people&#8217;s lifetimes.</p>
<p>In fact, while everyone else was watching their hard-earned assets evaporate I would have been earning a trickle of money, and now be cashed up to pick and choose.</p>
<p>Now&#8230;</p>
<p>What if I told you that there is an adviser who did just that for his clients&#8230;</p>
<p>&#8230;but he has had to leave the company!?!</p>
<p>Incredible, but true!</p>
<p>By advising his clients to get into cash he lost all the income from commissions he was making by having people in the stockmarket. Therefore, to make ends meet he has gone off to get a job at a bank!</p>
<p>This guy is in Canada where the stock market has fallen around 30% in the quarter.</p>
<p>This means he saved all the clients who followed his advice a whopping 30% of their savings (and remember that if you have suffered a 33% fall, the maths sayd you need a 50% rise just to get back to where you started!)</p>
<p>His clients are now in a position where their cash can buy up stocks that are 30% or more cheaper than they used to be. A double advantage!</p>
<p>And yet in a couple of weeks time he will begin a new job with a bank to get back the income he has been losing.</p>
<p>This a cautionary tale of what can happen when someone doesn&#8217;t know how to apply Word of Mouth and referral marketing.</p>
<p>So when I heard of his plight I arranged to give him a call.</p>
<p>Do you think he is pleased to have lost an income because he gave good advice?</p>
<p>No, certainly not.</p>
<p>Do you think his client&#8217;s want to lose him as a financial adviser?</p>
<p>Not if they have any interest in their financial future they don&#8217;t, but they don&#8217;t know this is happening. He hadn&#8217;t told them a thing!</p>
<p>Do you think this is an fantastic dinner-table conversation starter that would have word of mouth recommendations flocking to him, if only this story was out there?</p>
<p>I absolutely do!</p>
<p>The tragedy is that this adviser had no idea how to turn this situation into an event that MAKES his career, rather than ends it.</p>
<p>Heck, this would be worthy of a page in a local newspaper&#8230;</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#8220;Elderly Widow&#8217;s Home Saved From Stockmarket Crash&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;My friend&#8217;s are all worried about how they are going to survive with bills increasing and their savings way down, let alone whether there will be anything to pass on to the kids.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;But my financial adviser steered me clear of this and I sleep so much easier at night. I am not having to cut back on prescription medicines, or buying my dog his favorite treats!&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>[Okay, so I never wrote for newspapers. Radio was more my thing.]</p>
<p>Let me get personal for a moment.</p>
<p>What are you saying about YOUR financial advisers at the moment?</p>
<p>Where do you think their real interests lie, and what word of mouth are you giving them?</p>
<p>Finally, what would it have been worth to you to have had THIS adviser looking after your money?</p>
<p>What&#8217;s your opinion?</p>
<p>Enter a comment on this post, and I will make sure to pass it on to the adviser himself for his learning.</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>The Worst Mistake Has To Be…</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/the-worst-mistake-has-to-be/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/the-worst-mistake-has-to-be/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:35:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Follow-Up]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[SendOutCards]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Systems]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/?p=85</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many businesses have their busiest time in the November / December period.
Often this is the make or break time of year when earnings have finally passed overheads and taxes, and they are relieved to at last be making money for their own pocket.
Yet perhaps because it is so busy, this is exactly the time most [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Many businesses have their busiest time in the November / December period.</p>
<p>Often this is the make or break time of year when earnings have finally passed overheads and taxes, and they are relieved to at last be making money for their own pocket.</p>
<p>Yet perhaps because it is so busy, this is exactly the time most businesses will stumble and drop the ball.</p>
<p>They will get so caught up in servicing customers that they will forget to think about their marketing - and in particular how they will go about following-up.</p>
<p>It happens in one of two ways&#8230;</p>
<p>1. You focus on the immediate customers, and forget about building relationships with the past ones who have done business with you throughout the year.</p>
<p>Or even worse&#8230;</p>
<p>2. You let all these new customers buy, and then leave - without collecting their contact details and permission to follow-up with them in future!</p>
<p>I was reminded of this just this week when doing a consulting session for a clever businessman about Christmas sales.</p>
<p>I knew he was doing alot of things right because most of the people in his industry have been driven out of business by changes in technology over the past 20 years. Yet he had kept upgrading his marketing and he was kicking along nicely.</p>
<p>He was certainly clever enough to be collecting contact details for his customers.</p>
<p>Much more impressively he had been using those details year-in year-out to recontact people. He was producing excellent repeat holiday business just like clockwork.</p>
<p>But when I asked him how regularly he was contacting these people DURING the year to offer them the rest of his product range, he paused.</p>
<p>&#8220;Never&#8221;, he said. &#8220;I hadn&#8217;t considered it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hmmm.</p>
<p>As I say at the top of this blog, there are 3 keys to word of mouth.</p>
<p>By far the easiest to implement is &#8216;Follow-Up&#8217;. Personal, frequent, long-term follow-up.</p>
<p>The easiest sale you will ever make is a repeat sale.</p>
<p>The second easiest sale is a referral.</p>
<p>Both of these are far more likely when you follow-up.</p>
<p>If your follow-up is not bringing you all the results you want (or if it&#8217;s just been all too hard) then help is at hand.</p>
<p>Next week I&#8217;ll be doing a special-offer webinar specifically on follow-up and Word of Mouth - and demonstrating what I regard as the Ultimate Service to put your follow-up on autopilot. You will also discover&#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li>A three     step seasonal message that eases people into the next level of the buying     relationship with you.</li>
<li>Follow-up that is personal, powerful AND, best of all, automatic.</li>
<li>How to make your follow-up marketing a profit-centre, not an expense.</li>
</ul>
<p>Never risk the follow-up mistake again. <a href="https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/320076609" target="_blank">Click on this link</a> to sign-up and I&#8217;ll see you on the webinar Wednesday November 12.</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>WII-FM… Really.</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/wii-fm-really/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/wii-fm-really/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:03:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Call To Action]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[SendOutCards]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Word of Mouth Referrals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/?p=74</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In &#8220;Word of Mouth Magic&#8221; I cover, as many marketers do, tuning in to WII-FM.
That is, tuning in to the ultimate buyer&#8217;s question that you must answer, &#8220;What&#8217;s In It For Me?&#8221;
Sometimes I get really frustrated, and I think of it as WTF-III-FM - &#8220;What The F*** Is In It For Me?&#8221;, also known as [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In <a href="http://www.WordofMouthMagic.com/magic/" target="_blank">&#8220;Word of Mouth Magic&#8221;</a> I cover, as many marketers do, tuning in to WII-FM.</p>
<p>That is, tuning in to the ultimate buyer&#8217;s question that you must answer, &#8220;What&#8217;s In It For Me?&#8221;</p>
<p>Sometimes I get really frustrated, and I think of it as WTF-III-FM - &#8220;What The F*** Is In It For Me?&#8221;, also known as &#8220;Who cares&#8221; or &#8220;So what.&#8221;</p>
<p>I usually hold back when I feel like this, and sometimes holding back is a good thing. One example of this was a UK guy I came into contact with called Gary Coyle.</p>
<p>Gary calls himself a &#8220;Post Office Consultant&#8221;.</p>
<p>Cute eh?</p>
<p>The only problem is that I don&#8217;t have a post office so I don&#8217;t need his services right?</p>
<p>100% wrong!</p>
<p>I found Gary on one of the business networking sites I use and as I read through his profile which explained his history of ups and downs of being in business with Post Offices. I would ask him how the UK postal service worked because of my interest in SendOutCards worldwide.</p>
<p>In actual fact when I spoke to Gary he wasn&#8217;t wanting referrals from Post Offices at all.</p>
<p>I became really confused.</p>
<p>I am trying to work out who I could refer to him who would be an ideal referral for him. I&#8217;m trying to think of myself as a potential client of Gary&#8217;s and asking myself &#8220;WTF-III-FM&#8221; as I&#8217;m listening to Gary.</p>
<p>Then Gary explains it in a way I finally get. What he is actually wanting is products and services to put into those post offices.</p>
<p>His real value is in offering businesses a new way to access the vast retail market of the Post Office.</p>
<p>The penny drops.</p>
<p>His ideal client is someone who already has a product but wants to expand their retail marketing in the UK. There are certainly businesses that want that.</p>
<p>An even better referral is people who have connections with such businesses, eg marketers, business advisers, accountants.</p>
<p>Then I explained to Gary that his profile didn&#8217;t make it clear who he was wanting and how they could benefit from what he offers ie WII-FM.</p>
<p>The first thing Gary spontaneously said to me&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>I&#8217;ll be changing my online profile immediately.</p></blockquote>
<p>Even better, he actually did what he said he would!</p>
<p>He asked me for feedback on the new profile. I gave it. It was still very feature driven eg &#8220;22 years in the post office business&#8221;. He responded again with more changes.</p>
<p>If you check out his profile currently, the first section and the final paragraph is new. The with middle history with features and no benefits is the original profile.</p>
<p>His first re-draft profile included this explanation of his work&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>If you have an idea, product or service that you would like to introduce into 10,000 Post Offices and 40,000 independent convenience stores in the UK, I have the expertise, contacts and know-how to fast track this process.</p></blockquote>
<p>With a little more thought he has made it even more punchy&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>24 million people visit a post office every week. I will show you how to reach them.</p></blockquote>
<p>For the right client that certainly gets the WTF-III-FM attention!</p>
<p>It takes time to really understand your buyers &amp; clients, but making the effort is worthwhile.</p>
<p>Oh, and did I mention that Gary had been active on this business network for 6 years without any resulting business. We&#8217;ll see how much business <a href="http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=21673" target="_blank">his new WII-FM profile</a> attracts.</p>
<p>How well do you communicate <span style="text-decoration: underline;">your</span> WII-FM?</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>Really Getting A Buyer’s Point Of View</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/really-getting-a-buyers-point-of-view/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/really-getting-a-buyers-point-of-view/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:06:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[WOW!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/really-getting-a-buyers-point-of-view/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you really &#8216;get&#8217; your customer&#8217;s needs?
 
Too bad this is actually an ad by, of all things, an Irish online bank.
Sure, understand your customers needs. But do realize that one of their needs might be not to reveal their real needs.
Saving face is an important need too.
-Martin Russell
Share This
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Do you really &#8216;get&#8217; your customer&#8217;s needs?</p>
<p align="center"> <a href="http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/moody_cow_florist.jpg" title="Moody Cow Florist"><img src="http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/moody_cow_florist.jpg" alt="Moody Cow Florist" /></a></p>
<p>Too bad this is actually an ad by, of all things, <a href="http://www.rabodirect.ie/" target="_blank">an Irish online bank</a>.</p>
<p>Sure, understand your customers needs. But do realize that one of their needs might be not to reveal their real needs.</p>
<p>Saving face is an important need too.</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>Getting The Media To Call You!</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/getting-the-media-to-call-you/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/getting-the-media-to-call-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:16:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/getting-the-media-to-call-you/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Probably the most leveraged area of word of mouth is the media.
With newspapers, articles, books, TV, radio etc the media offers word of mouth opportunities that cost you nothing but your time.
Even better, you instantly become the expert rather than the advertiser. This means people will trust you and respond to you.So even though word [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Probably the most leveraged area of word of mouth is the media.</p>
<p>With newspapers, articles, books, TV, radio etc the media offers word of mouth opportunities that cost you nothing but your time.</p>
<p>Even better, you instantly become the expert rather than the advertiser. This means people will trust you and respond to you.So even though word of mouth in the media is incredibly powerful, it&#8217;s a tricky area.</p>
<p>But who knows how to put together a Media Release? Find a newsworthy angle? Word it so as to catch a journalist&#8217;s attention? Format it correctly? Include all your contacts details? Set aside time to be available? Then work out who to send it to en mass, in the hope that it does something?</p>
<p>Not most people in small business that&#8217;s for sure!</p>
<p>But&#8230;</p>
<p>What if you had a particular area of expertise, and you could just stick up your hand whenever someone in the media needed to interview someone on that topic?</p>
<p>Wouldn&#8217;t that be cool?</p>
<p>Especially if it was free!</p>
<p>Well <em>it is</em> free, and first I told those people who connected up with me when I advised readers about the start-up social network <a href="http://www.PerfectNetworker.com" target="_blank">www.PerfectNetworker.com</a>, and now I&#8217;ve told all my readers via email how to get access to it.</p>
<p>Ryan Coleman of <a href="http://www.thenextforce.com/" target="_blank">www.TheNextForce.com</a> told me his experience with this service&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Just in the past month&#8230; i picked up a radio show, been interviewed for 2 book interviews and sourced 9 hiring managers to interview on my book that I am working on!</p>
<p>Go figure!</p></blockquote>
<p>I also have heard of people passing on these media opportunities to their clients. What a WOW! of a customer value-add strategy is that!</p>
<p>This media link-up service is so powerful I am including the details for anyone who subscribes to this blog.</p>
<p>Go up to the top right side of <a href="http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/perfectnetworker-deadline-has-almost-come-gone/" target="_blank">the home page of this blog</a>, in the boxes enter your name, your email address, and click the subscribe button.</p>
<p>Then go to your inbox, find the confirmation email from me, and click the link in it. With your subscription you will be sent details on how to access the FREE media link-ups, and future blog goodies too.</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>What Consitutes Bad Marketing?</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/what-consitutes-bad-marketing/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/what-consitutes-bad-marketing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:59:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Follow-Up]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[WOW!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/what-consitutes-bad-marketing/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A couple of weeks back a friend of mine, Don Farnden, did a nice promotion for his coaching work. To get physical addresses for his database, he offered to mail a special &#8220;Boosting Business&#8221; gift valued at $597 to everyone who replied with their mailing address.
He already had my mailing address, but I was curious [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A couple of weeks back a friend of mine, <a href="http://boostbusinessresults.com.au/testimonials.php" target="_blank">Don Farnden</a>, did a nice promotion for his coaching work. To get physical addresses for his database, he offered to mail a special &#8220;Boosting Business&#8221; gift valued at $597 to everyone who replied with their mailing address.</p>
<p>He already had my mailing address, but I was curious so I sent my details in anyway.</p>
<p>A couple of days later I get a small package in the mail.</p>
<p>Inside was a disc with the company name across it, Boost Business Results.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m in a rush so I take it with me and stick it in the car as I drive. But it&#8217;s not a CD, it&#8217;s a DVD. I hadn&#8217;t see that on the label.</p>
<p>When I get to the office again I stick it in my computer and watch a seminar room with people sitting at tables and no presenter, just a testimonial video playing  at the front of the room.</p>
<p>I fast forward through and about 8 minutes in the business coaching seminar begins. The video is 6 hours long and is unedited footage.</p>
<p>When I realize this I immediately give up ever finding that much time, and eliminate the problem by throwing the DVD in the bin. Step 1 of Time Management. Elimination.</p>
<p>Question&#8230;</p>
<p>Was this bad marketing?</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s take the story further.</p>
<p>A week later I phoned Don and he mentioned they had already had 2 big coaching sales from people who HAD watched the DVD all the way through.</p>
<p>This is the power of filtering.</p>
<p>Giving away a whole coaching seminar, unedited, meant that only the really keen were going to respond. But a whole $597 seminar for FREE! That&#8217;s a WOW for the right prospect.</p>
<p>So, was it bad marketing?</p>
<p>Answer&#8230;</p>
<p>Not based on results. And actual results are the only way to decide. Opinions from non-buyers are simply dangerous.</p>
<p>Maybe however this approach was just a fluke.</p>
<p>Another example&#8230;</p>
<p>A few months ago a UK business coach, Eric Sutherland, set up a 7-week series of complete Business Coaching pdfs - once again for free.</p>
<p>He was asking busy business people to set aside consistent time every week to implement the information. Who has that sort of time?</p>
<p>Well, when I spoke to him he told me not only had he already gotten some big coaching contracts from the quality of the information he presented there, but he had also had ZERO unsubscribes.</p>
<p>[If you want to check out this quality of <a href="http://businessperformancecoaching.co.uk/spc/spmc-sign.html" target="_blank">his coaching program go here.</a>]</p>
<p>Rather than go for the big sale, you can use the classic funnel effect as shown in <a href="http://www.edrivis.com/?p=359" target="_blank">this video here from Ed Rivis</a> where his free course on improving a sales website drew in 1035 subscribers in 35 days and Ed then built the relationship from small sales up medium sales and then to bigger consulting ones.</p>
<p>But if you truly give away quality, the method matters much less.</p>
<p>Getting known is more important than getting it right. Your ideal customer will love you and rave about you, but can NEVER buy from you until they know you exist.</p>
<p>NOTE:-</p>
<p>All 3 of these expert marketers, <a href="http://boostbusinessresults.com.au" target="_blank">Don</a>, <a href="http://www.businessperformancecoaching.co.uk/" target="_blank">Eric</a>, and <a href="http://www.EdRivis.com" target="_blank">Ed</a> made sure they got contact details up front.</p>
<p>Not all marketing works. That&#8217;s not good or bad, it&#8217;s just a fact. Even these experts could have produced a dud campaign.</p>
<p>However with contact details they could always try something else instead, let alone go for future sales as well.</p>
<p>Where is your list of people who have already been attracted to you?</p>
<p>Bad marketing is when you don&#8217;t capture the list so you can&#8217;t try again.</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>A Networking Multiplier</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/a-networking-multiplier/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/a-networking-multiplier/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:48:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Follow-Up]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/a-networking-multiplier/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ever gone to a networking event and ended up only speaking to people you already knew?
I&#8217;m sure you had every intention of linking up with new people and building new relationships, but let&#8217;s face it. Did you actually do it?
If you didn&#8217;t do it as well as you would have liked then I bet you [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ever gone to a networking event and ended up only speaking to people you already knew?</p>
<p>I&#8217;m sure you had every intention of linking up with new people and building new relationships, but let&#8217;s face it. Did you actually do it?</p>
<p>If you didn&#8217;t do it as well as you would have liked then I bet you spent much of your time instead with people you already knew.</p>
<p>That might be good for building your relationship with them, but it didn&#8217;t expand your network.</p>
<p>Of course, you don&#8217;t want to be rude to people you know and ignore them, but how can you stop yourself from simply hanging around with them for the entire event.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.perfectnetworker.com/network/article.php?article_id=7" target="_blank">Take a tip</a> from PerfectNetworker founder and referral educator, Glenn Garnes on what to do&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>How many times do you walk into an event   and immediately begin looking for familiar faces?  We all do it, but it&#8217;s the wrong thing to   do.  If you hang out with people you already know you&#8217;re limiting your opportuunity to meet new   people.  Networking events should focus on making new connections because the environment is   not usually conducive to building relationships.  That&#8217;s what one-on-one follow ups are for.</p>
<p>So, instead of hanging out with familiar faces, greet them quickly and let them know you came   to meet other people you may be able to refer to them.  Now, they&#8217;ll love you and actually   encourage you not to talk too long.  Imagine if all your friends each canvassed the room to   make connections for each other.  Wouldn&#8217;t that be a better use of your time and resources than   shooting the breeze with people you know already?  I have found it to be both fun and   productive for everyone involved.</p></blockquote>
<p>Isn&#8217;t this the ideal leverage multiplier you want from networking in the first place?</p>
<p>Keep accountable to others and let them keep you accountable too.</p>
<p>No exceptions.</p>
<p>My wife and I went to a 4-day event this past weekend.</p>
<p>We deliberately spent the first 3 days split up, only reconnecting during the main breaks and in the evening to sleep.</p>
<p>We have ended up with a networking list that&#8217;s much bigger, with some nice overlaps too. Now onto the next step&#8230;</p>
<p>Did anyone say &#8221;Follow-Up&#8221;?</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>The Real Sadness In HappYness</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/the-real-sadness-in-happyness/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/the-real-sadness-in-happyness/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:45:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/the-real-sadness-in-happyness/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve only just got around to watching &#8220;The Pursuit of Happyness&#8221; with actor, Will Smith.
Incredibly sad movie for me.
It&#8217;s meant to be a movie about success, about the American Dream, where an on-and-off homeless salesman Chris Gardner risks all to stay with his young son, and make it into the high-flying world of stockbroking.
Despite the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve only just got around to watching &#8220;The Pursuit of Happyness&#8221; with actor, Will Smith.</p>
<p>Incredibly sad movie for me.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s meant to be a movie about success, about the American Dream, where an on-and-off homeless salesman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Gardner" title="Chris Gardner">Chris Gardner</a> risks all to stay with his young son, and make it into the high-flying world of stockbroking.</p>
<p>Despite the Happy ending, it&#8217;s a sad movie.</p>
<p>The marriage break-up is sad.</p>
<p>The homelessness is sad (and I am told it is even more realistic because many of the &#8220;actors&#8221; in the line waiting for the homeless shelter were in fact real homeless people.)</p>
<p>The troubles that happen in the story are saddening too.</p>
<p>But for me there was one further sadness that hit me from the way the movie portraited Chris Garnder.</p>
<p>Chris was training to be a &#8220;stockbroker&#8221;, when in fact he was merely being a powerhouse salesperson.</p>
<p>No knowledge of the underlying businesses was required. No knowledge of accounting. No knowledge of the industries. None of that.</p>
<p>Just an ability to network and sell people.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s sad.</p>
<p>It reminds me of Robert Kiyosaki saying, &#8220;The reason so many financial advisers are called brokers is because they are often broker than you&#8221; and Warren Buffet commenting, &#8220;Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.&#8221;</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t just be a salesperson. Be something else first and foremost, so the sales skills will make sense.</p>
<p>Both you, and your customers, and their word of mouth recommendations will be better for it.</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>Which Networker Are You?</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/which-networker-are-you/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/which-networker-are-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:24:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Follow-Up]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/which-networker-are-you/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[About a month ago I finally tore myself away from my wife and kids for a night and went to a sales training event when Tom &#8216;Big Al&#8217; Schreiter was in town.
It was a good event, but I was there for the networking.
Unfortunately everyone seemed to have come for the training only. In fact it [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>About a month ago I finally tore myself away from my wife and kids for a night and went to a sales training event when <a href="http://www.fortunenow.com/public/department27.cfm" target="_blank">Tom &#8216;Big Al&#8217; Schreiter</a> was in town.</p>
<p>It was a good event, but I was there for the networking.</p>
<p>Unfortunately everyone seemed to have come for the training only. In fact it seemed like they had all been brainwashed with the idea that they were in competition with everyone else in the room. The first question people would ask was &#8220;Which company are you with?&#8221;</p>
<p>Yuck!</p>
<p>Anyway at the end as I was chatting with the organizers to at least get some networking done with the top people there on the night, and I mentioned (in a loud voice) that I was there to network. Only one guy in the room took the hint and handed me his business card as he went past and said, &#8220;Contact me.&#8221;</p>
<p>So I did.</p>
<p>I tried calling, leaving a message, and a couple of polite emails. Then finally I left a phone message and sent an email saying, &#8220;Hope you are well. As I mentioned in my phone message if you want to network with me it&#8217;s now up to you.&#8221;</p>
<p>That got a reply&#8230;</p>
<p>&#8220;Sorry. I&#8217;m keen. Lets talk.&#8221;</p>
<p>So we set up a meeting.</p>
<p>Turns out that this guy is the most successful local MLMer I&#8217;ve come across so far. He&#8217;d been in quite a few different companies over a couple of decades, had a couple of belly flops, but also a string of successes as well. It really was no surprise that he was the one person in the room who was interested to network.</p>
<p>A few days later he emailed me about an new company that had just started that addressed one of the biggest marketing issues I had mentioned to him when we spoke. Moreover it&#8217;s a company he didn&#8217;t even know about when he first handed me his card.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s the key.</p>
<p>Just like word of mouth, networking often gets done before you ever realize you need it, and you need to go in with no preconceived idea what might come of it.</p>
<p>When this guy handed me his card he didn&#8217;t think he&#8217;d meet a medical doctor with an online marketing blog, and I didn&#8217;t think I&#8217;d join a new company. But we both knew that if we built networks these opportunities would come.</p>
<p>Are you thinking everyone is your competition?</p>
<p>Are you only networking within a known circle?</p>
<p>If so, then take a punt some times and become the networker who takes the opportunity to go that little bit further.</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>SponsorDaddy Review</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/sponsordaddy-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/sponsordaddy-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:01:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/sponsordaddy-review/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[Note: Currently SponsorDaddy is in "soft pre-launch" which means they are keeping low key. I've tried to be as accurate in this review as possible. I'm in SponsorDaddy, but I'm not so high up that I know all the details, sorry. Some changes/upgrades have already been flagged, and you can be certain that lots of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[Note: Currently SponsorDaddy is in "soft pre-launch" which means they are keeping low key. I've tried to be as accurate in this review as possible. I'm in SponsorDaddy, but I'm not so high up that I know all the details, sorry. Some changes/upgrades have already been flagged, and you can be certain that lots of stuff is still open to change as they test and upgrade, but the fundamentals here can be expected to remain.]</p>
<p>SponsorDaddy is an amazing concept for an MLM company.</p>
<p>Sort of one of those &#8220;how come someone didn&#8217;t think of this before&#8221; ideas.</p>
<p align="center"><strong>The SponsorDaddy Product.</strong></p>
<p>The SponsorDaddy service is a website that coordinates all your online MLM prospecting.</p>
<p>It all starts with a <a href="http://martin.sponsordaddy.com/" target="_blank">landing page for your primary opportunity</a> that introduces people to MLM / network marketing, and then when they opt-in shows them the particular business opportunity you are in (your &#8216;primary opportunity&#8217;).</p>
<p>Someone in any MLM company can join SponsorDaddy and get a full suite of online marketing and management tools; a professional lead-generation website with movies and audio, a follow-up sequence of emails, business opportunity leads, statistics and traffic analytics, built in blogs, training videos, live video actors, forums, the infamous Web 2.0 and Social Networking stuff, and much more.</p>
<p>The company behind this is <a href="http://www.Naxum.com" target="_blank">Naxum</a>. Their website has been up <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.naxum.com" target="_blank">since 2006</a> and the best bit is where they show <a href="http://naxum.com/portfolio/movies.html" target="_blank">a portfolio of their websites for other MLM companies</a>.</p>
<p>Basically SponsorDaddy is a non-company-specific version of these websites.</p>
<p>Lots of MLM companies now have an online marketing tool system, some good, many not-so-good.</p>
<p>The difference with SponsorDaddy is that because it isn&#8217;t restricted to one company, you can use it to promote any company you want, and even promoted multiple companies so that someone who doesn&#8217;t like your primary opportunity has a chance to say yes to another opportunity you may have.</p>
<p>You can add in contacts from your warm market, other networking contacts, as well as opt-in leads you buy, or the leads provided in the system (varies with the different plans.)</p>
<p>By sending them to your SponsorDaddy site you get to sort and filter those who are most interested so that you focus your follow-up on those who show the most interest.</p>
<p>Your new distributors can sign up on the system so it&#8217;s entirely duplicatable.</p>
<p align="center"><strong>The SponsorDaddy Opportunity.</strong></p>
<p>At this stage the marketing management service is just getting started. On a product/service basis alone therefore it would make sense to avoid being among the first people to join and wait until they mature the product.</p>
<p>However this is where the business opportunity comes in.</p>
<p>This system is of potential interest to two massive groups of people; the tens of millions of people who are already involved in MLM, as well as the traditional cold lead group of people who would be interested in business opportunities online.</p>
<p>If you trust that the underlying company Naxum and management can manage the growing pains and the standard risks of setting up any new venture, then the business opportunity is an incredible reason to get involved in SponsorDaddy immediately. Obviously if they can&#8217;t then this may go the way of so many MLM companies that curl up their toes in the first few years. It&#8217;s part of being in at the start of any business, but the ticket of entry isn&#8217;t so high that you can&#8217;t make your money back just on the networks you will form once you join, let alone from leads for your primary opportunity.</p>
<p>Being online and more easily scalable SponsorDaddy can grow very, very quickly, and distributorship is open to those outside the United States, and not just into the classic countries of Canada, England &amp; UK, Ireland, Singapore, New Zealand (NZ), and Australia. SponsorDaddy can also reach into countries like Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Europe, India, etc etc.</p>
<p>SponsorDaddy also enables you to build a network that will continue even as people switch from one network marketing opportunity to another.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s face it. Many people don&#8217;t stay with the first company they join; perhaps they don&#8217;t succeed in their first company, or they don&#8217;t fit with the product, or they joined just because it was the only one they knew, or because their friend / family member was already involved. Many of them will try another company, and with SponsorDaddy you can continue to have them in your downline because which ever company they join, they will still need a tool for their online marketing. So the team you build can continue with you, even as they change their primary opportunity.</p>
<p>You can get more details about the compensation plan (it&#8217;s a binary), and the different plans ($199 sign-up then $25-$400 a month thereafter), from <a href="http://martin.sponsordaddy.net/" target="_blank">the site itself</a> so I won&#8217;t go into it in more detail here.</p>
<p align="center"><strong>What I Saw In SponsorDaddy&#8230; </strong></p>
<p>SponsorDaddy is a solution to a problem I had been grappling with for myself.</p>
<p>How could I introduce people to MLM as an industry without getting caught up in the particular product line that I fell in love with if that wasn&#8217;t right for them?</p>
<p>I was still keen to help people appreciate this industry and the potential for an additional passive and residual income stream. But did this mean merely handing them on to someone else and hoping they would get the proper support?</p>
<p>SponsorDaddy gave me a practical way to get rewarded for my efforts, and yet also the freedom to make sure they found the right MLM for them.</p>
<p align="center"><strong>SponsorDaddy In Summary&#8230;  </strong></p>
<p>SponsorDaddy is an online MLM prospecting system that is marketed by MLM.</p>
<p>Nicely circular.</p>
<p>Barely two months old, it&#8217;s a great concept by a company that&#8217;s done the product before, but the sheer scale and growth of this means that I predict it WILL experience growing pains and has a finite chance of coming undone. Make sure to distinguish a scam from just what can be expected in business start-ups.</p>
<p>If you have no background in online marketing and no interest in SponsorDaddy as a business opportunity, then you can safely wait until the first phase of kinks are ironed out of the system. Watch this space, but my advice is don&#8217;t join yet. SponsorDaddy will be a valuable tool for years to come.</p>
<p>If you are interested in online marketing for your current MLM then this can be a great learning curve (for example, you can run your own Live Chat feature on your SponsorDaddy site, which will be a great tool for your marketing education.)</p>
<p>If you already understand MLM / network marketing, whether you are currently with a company or not, then I suspect you are either curious, or downright excited, and you can find out more by opting-in and making your own assessment&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://martin.sponsordaddy.net/">http://martin.sponsordaddy.net/</a></p>
<p>[Note: If you came to this post from someone else who introduced you to SponsorDaddy please go back to them to get the right link for their site. You, they, and I will appreciate it. Thanks.]</p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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		<title>PerfectNetworker - The Tiger By The Tail</title>
		<link>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/perfectnetworker-the-tiger-by-the-tail/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/perfectnetworker-the-tiger-by-the-tail/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:14:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martin Russell</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Call To Action]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Follow-Up]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/perfectnetworker-the-tiger-by-the-tail/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hopefully most of you reading this will have a small business of your own, so I can ask this question&#8230;
&#8220;Ever had &#8217;success&#8217; be a problem?&#8221;
Growing a small business into a bigger business means you hope for success, but sometimes it will be like having a tiger by the tail.
Perhaps the success will be when a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hopefully most of you reading this will have a small business of your own, so I can ask this question&#8230;</p>
<p>&#8220;Ever had &#8217;success&#8217; be a problem?&#8221;</p>
<p>Growing a small business into a bigger business means you hope for success, but sometimes it will be like having a tiger by the tail.</p>
<p>Perhaps the success will be when a marketing campaign finally hits the mark, a big order comes in, a media outlet picks up your story by chance.</p>
<p>What you do in this situation is critical for your word of mouth.</p>
<p>People are talking about you, the good and any bad, and with your credibility on the line you need to live up to everything you have said before and yet keep flexible to stay focussed on the original goal - to deliver the value that your customers came to you for in the first place.</p>
<p>This is what has happened to PerfectNetworker when they blew past the 300 members number that I mentioned in <a href="http://www.wordofmouthmagic.com/perfectnetworker-deadline-has-almost-come-gone/">my previous post</a>.</p>
<p>The word of mouth lesson is to keep everyone informed as you go.</p>
<p>So I got on to one of the founders, Glenn Garnes, who replied back immediately&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Frankly, we were overwhelmed by the quick response from people who it was shared with and we got to 300 so quickly that we are considering extended the free membership to give more of our friends the ability to invite their closest networking contacts to join in.</p>
<p>We have a board meeting this coming week to determine what we are going to do, so for now you can continue to invite your contacts until we sort this all out. I&#8217;ll report back when we have a final decision, but in the meantime I&#8217;d say take advantage of the opportunity to continue inviting your contacts if you like.</p></blockquote>
<p>Well I do like.</p>
<p>So too have many readers of this blog that have already joined. [I think I've connected up with most of you, but send me a request if I missed you in the rush, and also pass this link below on to others you know.]</p>
<p>Here is the place to sign-up while the initial period of full-membership is free&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.perfectnetworker.com/network/signup.php" target="_blank">http://www.perfectnetworker.com/network/signup.php</a></p>
<p>-Martin Russell</p>
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