Sales and Marketing

It's that magic moment during the sales call when you know it's time to ask for the business. And what happens? The words get caught in your throat like a thorny fishbone, your face flushes like an innocent young bride's on a steamy August night....

If the thought of 'selling' sends shivers down your spine ... hang onto your hoe. Selling is like gardening! You can try shortcuts - but the results will be like fertilizing the lawn when you have no grass! Here are 4 tips guaranteed to have you...

P-L-A-N. Most business owners don’t. We’ve become a society of doers not thinkers with the attention span of gnats (no offence to gnats). More businesses operate at a tactical rather than a strategic level; responding reactively versus...

"It's like throwing cooked spaghetti at the wall," explains my friend. "It doesn't always stick, but slowly winds its way to the floor." Now she is not talking about her cooking abilities, but the effectiveness of her marketing. When you first start out in business there is that tendency to throw a lot of money into marketing, with the underlying feeling that at least you are doing something; you're moving forward and getting out there. Bottom line, your business is for real.

Recent studies confirm that consumers and business owners alike still prefer email marketing as the #1 way of communicating about new products and services. But for the most part, only retail chains or “daily deal” type sites can get away with straight promotional emails. For small business owners and solo-preneurs like us, the ezine rules. What’s an ezine? An ezine delivers a mix of insightful, practical content for your readers along with your promotional updates and info.