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The Marketing Recipe: Money, Marketing and Me '“ 3 Keys For Success by: Ana Greco You have a great product or service'¦ Now, how should you market it? You have to make others know about what you have to offer. There is no good in having a great idea if you don't know how to sell it, right? Your motivation is financial independence (MONEY); you establish a quality product (your service), and you go out into the harsh competitive world and sell it (MARKETING) while you also sell yourself (ME)! Here are a few tips and a real example which you should keep in mind in order to prospect. MONEY: Let's admit it: Money makes business and business makes money! If you are looking for venture capital, try to get investors interested in your product/service by attending venture capital forums such as 'Keiretsu'¯ or 'Angel'¯. Do your homework: look for the best bank loans and compare them all before you finally choose one. Procurement sessions (one-to-one meetings with big Corporations) could also be beneficial for your business. Take advantage of the fact that you are a woman and that you own a business; find procurement contracts for women and minority owned business. Find a strategic partner who you can do business with: together you will be stronger. MOTIVATION / ME: It's not what you know that counts'¦ but WHO you know! Always update yourself and your knowledge, so that your Competitors don't win the race. Be part of Committees with which you may feel identified with (e.g. National Latina Business Women Association) and learn from other people's experiences. Get connected to your community and gain exposure. Be detail oriented, show your customers that you care. Do a good job with follow ups and remember people's names when you first meet them. Remember that all leads count; be there for your clients 24/7'¦ don't make them play telephone tag with you. Always take care of their calls and needs. Feedback: listen to what your customers suggest. Never imprison yourself at your office and never forget that there are no physical limits: internet! MARKETING: Take great care and time in building your webpage. Make attractive business cards and brochures. Display your brochures on a display-table from where people can pick up some literature regarding your Company. Attend all the networking sessions that you can, and try to be the speaker in some of them. Attend expos and shows where you can get to talk personally about your product/service with your customers. Try to get business mentoring. After taking in mind these tips, a cheap and effective way to market your business could be to organize an educative seminar related to your business where you could get to speak to an audience of potential customers (e.g. a financial planner who gets to talk about retirement). Your motivation and attitude will be crucial to your seminar's success, make them trust you. After all, you want to make business with them, but you also want to help their own business grow thanks to your product/service. Get the most out of your seminars by having all the data of the people who are going to attend, so that you will have quality leads. In order to prospect some more, you will need a web-based appointment scheduling tool. You could advertise your current phone number to which potential clients could call to and book into a seminar reservation on a given day to come and listen to you speak on how you could for example, plan a retirement if you were a financial planner. To sum up, Money, Marketing & Me is real easy: Be Motivated Be prepared, and always Be hands on. About The Author Hi! My name is Ana Greco and I'm with Almond Hill Enterprises. We are a web-based appointment scheduling and answering service all in one. I have come all the way from Spain to California for this three month internship. I am currently a business management and marketing student who still has 2 years to finish College. I am trying to make my best out of my stay here in USA, and I am trying my best to prospect and learn sales techniques before I return back to my home in Spain. I am 23 years old and I love this country...! anagreco@turboschedule.com This article was posted on September '03
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