Growing Your Business in 2013 - 181.9 Million

Guest blog post from Carol Ritter of CarolTalks.com

Did you know that “181.9 million Americans watched 38.8 billion digital content videos in April 2013.  Media is a $4 billion business that’s expected to reach $9 billion over the next three years,” Kenneth Parks, Chief Marketing Officer of DigitasLBi North America told CMO.com. This year will see a lot of growth in original digital video from the biggest players in media–such as Conde Nast–so buyers and publishers are now committing their money to the medium.  Are you?  Does your business have a marketing plan that includes a budget for media?  Are you marketing your biz in many different venues or are you doing the same old same old.

I recently met someone who has a business on a notable Main Street.  She said to me, “I’m only interested in selling to people in my town.”  I stepped back stunned, recognizing the lack of vision and the ability to see into the future.  Even more interesting, her business is not flourishing, new customers should not only be defined geographically.

The world is changing, and you can sit there and hope for the best limiting your ability to to attract new people or you can take on the future with zest.

1. Build a Business Facebook page, FREE Marketing

2. Definitely hire a media specialist and teach your customers to click and learn preferably with a little entertainment 

3. Design a state of the art Marketing plan with dollars attached

4. Pay attention to what your competition is doing, check out their media

Remember those 181.9 million Americans are just dying to see you and your product live on YouTube.  A $4 billion dollar business is nothing to shake a stick at, get on board, build your business and THINK MILLIONS!

Carol serves as a featured writer for the Home News and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Blog. Carol is an accomplished professional speaker, coach and educational consultant specializing in innovative leadership, outrageous fundraising, million dollar marketing, and building organizational alliances throughout the country.  Carol’s creative  leadership with bullet proof ideas for recruiting MORE MEMBERS, MORE MONEY AND BETTER LEADERS. www.caroltalks.com 610-442-4545 tellkids@aol.com  Like Carol on  Facebook at Caroltalks and CarolCoaches!  Carol S. Ritter, Immediate Past President, National Speakers Association Philadelphia

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Growing Your Business in 2013 - Cheers!

Guest blog from Carol Ritter of CarolTalks.com

It’s Little League time! For loyal parents and grandparents it’s time to stand out in the freezing cold, get burned on a sunny day or sit there in the pouring rain just to get a glimpse of a hit, home run or a great catch.  I was driving by a little league field last week and all I heard were Cheers, Cheers, Cheers.  My guess is that someone’s child hit the big one over the fence.

Then the next day I went to a local restaurant and was served the most delicious coffee, I told the waitress how wonderful it was and she told me that I can buy it there, free trade, organic, ground for me or I can grind it at home.  CHEERS, not only did I pay for breakfast, two cups of coffee, muffins to go, but I purchased some Joe for the road.  Hello, she gets it!  What does that mean?  It means that someone in the restaurant family has trained their staff to up-sell their customers, CHEERS.  So, the question is, how do you get your staff to drink the customer service kool-aid.  Here’s some ideas...

1. Reward them for their efforts
2. Raise the expectations, one for all and all for one
3. Make sure the rest of the staff knows who’s selling
4. Appreciate them; not only as employees but as people
5. Come up with new ideas to push product through the door

Baseball says it all, it’s a team effort, they may have a team star at a game but, overall, the whole team benefits by the efforts of one.  CHEERS, and the game is never short of CHEERS.  On occasion, a fan gets irritable but so do your customers.  Does that stop the game?  No, it’s just a little spill while you are running into home plate.

Cheering for your staff is not only good for the moral of the team, it’s a major league idea.

Carol serves as a featured writer for the Home News and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Blog. Carol is an accomplished professional speaker, coach and educational consultant specializing in innovative leadership, outrageous fundraising, million dollar marketing, and building organizational alliances throughout the country.  Carol’s creative  leadership with bullet proof ideas for recruiting MORE MEMBERS, MORE MONEY AND TER LEADERS. www.caroltalks.com 610-442-4545 tellkids@aol.com  Like me on  Facebook at Caroltalks and CarolCoaches!  Carol S. Ritter, Immediate Past President, National Speakers Association Philadelphia

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WAITING, WAITING, waiting... zzzz...

Guest blog post from Carol Ritter of CarolTalks.com

I’m hungry, want a place where I can get a salad, a little protein and, I’m thinking, maybe a delicious sweet potato.  So, I found the place and sat down at a table in the bar area.  A friend was going to join me in 20 minutes.  I got settled in, looked around and waited.  I waited and waited and waited for someone to ask me if I wanted a drink or a menu or maybe just a hello.  I watched the bartenders completely ignore my presence, they were busy washing glasses. I politely walked to the  reception desk, to the young girl (who was texting) and said, “Excuse me, do I have a waitress?”  She said, “The bartenders are supposed to tell me when someone sits down.”  So she took me back to my table and said to one bartender, “Who is supposed to wait on her?” The answer,  “Not me, I’m going home.” The hostess left and I was still WAITING.  My friend called and asked me to please order him something as he was running late.  I told him I still don’t have a waitress.”  He said, “WHAT, it’s been 15 minutes!”  “I know, I’m starting to think I’m invisible.” Suddenly, a friendly, perky woman raced to my table and said, “How can I help you?”  I wanted to say, “I feel bad cuz it seems like I’m interrupting washing glasses.”  But, I took the high road and and said, “Yes, I know what I want to order.”  She was at our table every 5 minutes asking us what she could do to make our visit more pleasant.  She obviously got the message that we were ignored.

In your business, is washing the dishes more important than selling product or service?  Although most of us prefer clean glasses, when we are hungry we want food.

Some ideas:

- Read the book,  Everyone’s in Sales, by Todd Cohen- the basis of his book is that every single person on your staff sells your product, your service, and most importantly, your reputation.  www.toddcohen.com

- Train your staff, bring in an expert to train your employees on extravagant customer service.

- The animal planet has “Shark Week,” your biz can have Extravagant Customer Service Week where customers vote on the best service provided by your team.

- Raise the Bar - increase expectations for your team.

Do you think I will return to the restaurant?  Do you think I will tell my friends and family what happened?  Will I recommend them to someone else?  Well, I’ve decided if asked those questions I’ll be waiting, and waiting and waiting to reply!!!

To see Carol speak with Sales and Technology experts at DeSales University on May 9th visit www.SalesCultureandTech.com. Learn how to grow you sales, increase your marketing and improve your technology.

NO WAITING!

Carol serves as a featured writer for the Home News and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Blog. Carol is an accomplished professional speaker, coach and educational consultant specializing in innovative leadership, outrageous fundraising, million dollar marketing, and building organizational alliances throughout the country.  Carol’s creative  leadership with bullet proof ideas for recruiting MORE MEMBERS, MORE MONEY AND TER LEADERS. www.caroltalks.com 610-442-4545 tellkids@aol.com. Like me on  Facebook at Caroltalks and CarolCoaches!  Carol S. Ritter, Immediate Past President, National Speakers Association Philadelphia







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