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DECEMBER 26, 2012

Mention Baldrige to some small business leaders and receive one of these responses: What’s that? Yet this relatively inexpensive business process improvement resource is a bridge to not only increase sales, but to create that coveted culture of high performance. Small Business. Yes, I know and? Far too hard!

Small Business 127

Small Business Small Business Health Care Government 127

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

How many small business owners and even sales professionals eventually succumb to this ever increasing disease, the madness of myopia? Clarity takes time and take a commitment from the small business owners and sales professionals to invest time to identify the following: What is their purpose? What is their vision?

Small Business 155

Small Business Small Business Licensing Intent 155

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OCTOBER 15, 2013

A recent Twitter response to a posting about relationship selling in small business sales revealed a buyer had bought an expensive new car without any relationship. Maybe part of the reason for the increase in sales exceptions are small business buyers are far more educated and knowledgeable that in years gone by.

Small Business 129

Small Business Small Business Webinar Metrics Twitter 129

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JULY 10, 2015

“Got no time” is not a statement you will hear from any forward thinking small business owners. No, these small business leaders will make time for: Answering the phone. Continual education. Working ON the business. Returning phone calls. Working on their strategic plan.

Small Business 70

Small Business Small Business Travel Twitter 70

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APRIL 24, 2015

Isn’t your life crazy enough without having to worry about the “add value” beating of the drums by small business coaches to strategic business growth consultants? Seems like everyone has some idea of how you can add value to win more business. Credit – www.gratisography.com. Sales Process.

Small Business 70

Small Business Small Business Ideal Customer Profile Education 70

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DECEMBER 7, 2012

Keeping the best and the brightest has always been part of talent management for small business owners. Yet, today this role will soon become the front seat driver if not the driver for any small business. 4 – Failure of Public Education. #5 2 – The 7 Rs. #3 3 – The Global Marketplace. #4

Small Business 125

Small Business Small Business Webinar Metrics Facebook 125

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SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Yesterday I was listening to a visitor to a monthly mastermind group of small business owners talk about himself and how he became involved in this one, multi-level marketing leadership program. He specifically mentioned he lacked education about himself as an individual and consequently as a leader.

Education 70

Education Loyalty Ideal Customer Profile Twitter 70

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OCTOBER 8, 2014

These folks remind me of executive coaches, small business coaches and life coaches who shout out about their coaching certifications. After 10 plus years as a small business coach, I have only been asked that question by other certified coaches. Today’s market is all about integrated, education based marketing.

Coaching 139

Coaching Marketing Small Business Small Business 139

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

Many small businesses have a sales action plan and some of the more forward thinking have a strategic action plan. For salespeople are just as responsible for keeping customers loyal as are other departments within any small business. With buyers become better educated, salespeople must also become better educated.

Small Business 151

Small Business Small Business Loyalty Construction 151

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MAY 20, 2013

Given a large household or estate is truly a small business or organization, then a salesperson is truly a steward of keeping the accounts (customers) and within the sales process does actively direct affairs. And how many salespeople are involved with finances of the small business either directly or indirectly?

Small Business 151

Small Business Small Business Loyalty Education 151

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

Until recently junk mail and auto robot dial phone calls seemed to hold the top places for sales pitches, but now social media is leading the pack and is way ahead of all other types of marketing for small businesses. Uneducated small business owners or sales professionals. Marketing consultants or sales coaches.

Social Media 140

Social Media Media Small Business Small Business 140

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DECEMBER 3, 2014

Salespeople and business professionals continually tell me “Selling is hard, much harder today.” I would agree given there are more small businesses popping up in the marketplace along with extra layers of decision makers. Education Based Marketing Works. So what makes selling for me easier than for others?

Sales Qualified Lead 166

Sales Qualified Lead Education Lead Rank Lead Scoring 166

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DECEMBER 1, 2014

Yes your small business life would indeed be much easier. My purpose is to educate, not pitch my executive coaching or talent management consulting practice. Unfortunately many small business owners and professionals think they are educating but in all reality are pitching their solutions (products or services).

Marketing 131

Marketing Small Business Small Business Sales Qualified Lead 131

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SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Time is something many small business owners and sales professionals have in vast or short quantities depending upon their current sales and business growth. And for years this issue of “no free consulting” has been front and center specific to this resource of time and results. Share on Facebook.

Ideal Customer Profile 128

Ideal Customer Profile Small Business Small Business Education 128

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MAY 21, 2014

” For most experienced small business professionals to C Suite executives, they know the intent is just that to spam or to sell. His sales intent behavior was very much like those business professionals who add you to their email lists without permission. For me LinkedIn is my professional Rolodex. .”

Intent 127

Intent LinkedIn Education Small Business 127

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OCTOBER 30, 2012

For many engaged in providing professional services to small business owners, entrepreneurs, sales people and executives, there is an element of “free consulting” usually present at the initial first or second meeting. Eventually the small business coach or organizational consultant is placed in an uncomfortable position.

Small Business 166

Small Business Small Business Coaching Banking 166

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AUGUST 2, 2012

Angelou is speaking about can be directly connected to sales and business through: Qualifying your potential customers and strategic partners. Business ethics. Sales Training Coaching Tip: For those engaged in education based marketing, there is a fine line between providing advice and being taken advantage of.

Coaching 161

Coaching Small Business Small Business Referrals 161

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JULY 2, 2013

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful marketing tools that small business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals have at the touch of their finger tips. I work for (insert company), that provides (insert solutions) for (insert target audience) and (insert geographic area) is part of my (sales, business development, etc.)

LinkedIn 127

LinkedIn Referrals Small Business Small Business 127

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Now once again small business owners including many sales professionals are scrambling because their results from their past choices are not where they want them to be. ” We, as small business owners, are the sum total of all of our choices. The end of the year is quickly coming to an end. Share on Facebook.

Small Business 136

Small Business Small Business Facebook Education 136

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MARCH 4, 2015

Unfortunately a lot of small businesses are buying into this lie and spending their hard earn profits. Business to business networking. With the Internet, the emphasis is now on educating sales prospects (education based marketing) through the sharing of articles, blogs and even comments in discussion groups.

Social Selling 70

Social Selling Sales Qualified Lead Social Media Small Business 70

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AUGUST 9, 2012

Yet there is one sales skill is that missing from all this learning and its absence may help to explain why so many in small business fail to increase sales. How many times have you read about writing being a necessary sales skill in any sales training coaching seminar or educational experience? Overcoming stalls and objections.

Coaching 162

Coaching Training Small Business Small Business 162

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OCTOBER 29, 2013

The question is how do I make my marketing memorable for my small business? Sales Training Coaching Tip: An education based marketing approach further unites these two marketing areas. There are many small businesses who provide such custom promotional items such as Quality Logo Products. Share on Facebook.

Marketing 137

Marketing Small Business Small Business Promotion 137

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JUNE 9, 2012

In the small business world much emphasis is placed around what is called the elevator pitch or 30 second elevator speech. From our early education years, we know that a short story has a beginning, a middle and an end. The small business focus from an emotionally engaging value or results driven perspective.

Small Business 171

Small Business Small Business Construction Call-back 171

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NOVEMBER 24, 2014

.” What would happen if we as small business owners to sales professionals took that “make my day” to heart and made it part of our overall marketing attitude in a positive way? For the goal is to two fold: Educate potential ideal customers. This is the extra benefit of education based marketing.

Marketing 131

Marketing Education LinkedIn Distribution 131

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MARCH 7, 2013

Each day thousands of new sales contacts are made between small business owners and professionals. For those in actual sales roles, their intentions of wanting to “sell” something may be being broadcast loud and clear to these new business relationships. We scheduled a time to talk.

Intent 126

Intent Small Business Small Business Education 126

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NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Through the various functionalities such as LinkedIn updates, group discussions and the LinkedIn pulse publishing platform small business owners to Fortune 1000 executives can connect and begin to build relationships with their “ideal customers” or “ideal leaders.” Nothing new here.). If this is you….please

Sales Leadership 165

Sales Leadership LinkedIn Decision Maker Ideal Customer Profile 165

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FEBRUARY 17, 2014

Even though this survey was conducted with much larger companies, the collected data can be applicable to small businesses especially those with under 20 employees. Education based marketing is one proven strategy to increase these types of conversations. Vendor consolidation. Share on Facebook.

Conversion 110

Conversion Marketing Infusion Vendor 110

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DECEMBER 16, 2014

The majority of salespeople, again those employed by small businesses with under 20 employees, will need to hone their writing skills because as the authors of this article noted 60% of the buying decision is made online. Today’s B2B buyers are better educated than ever before. That one skill is effective writing.

Training 141

Training Social Media Ideal Customer Profile Small Business 141

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MARCH 9, 2015

Unfortunately, when I ask small business owners who there ideal customer is I receive responses such as “ anyone with a pulse ” to “I don’t know.” For small business owners, social media has become a very valuable marketing channel especially for those who embrace education based marketing.

Marketing 70

Marketing Small Business Small Business Referrals 70

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MAY 14, 2013

With potential customers more educated, top sales performers must have this creativity talent of being able to think on their feet so they can increase sales. ” This type of unique and novel thinking benefits especially small businesses with much more limited workforce. This may be so. Source: Innermetrix).

Sales Leadership 140

Sales Leadership Small Business Small Business Facebook 140

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APRIL 9, 2014

Many small business owners will make a commitment to submit a posting, share information on their lists and then fail to honor that commitment. All of these examples demonstrate business ethics or corporate ethics within daily or weekly marketing actions. Today’s buyers are far more educated that in years gone by.

Social Media 139

Social Media Marketing Small Business Small Business 139

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JUNE 13, 2014

of all businesses here in the US having under 20 employees, employing a separate marketing department is financially unrealistic. Additionally, the impact of social media has allowed small businesses to market at a far more affordable investment. With 97.3% Share on Facebook.

Social Media 145

Social Media Marketing Distribution Sales Talent 145

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MARCH 19, 2014

Overall business growth? Yes your small business life would be so much nicer if your sales pipeline was filled with a constant stream of sales referrals.You can maybe even envision sitting back, feet up and taking a break from the day to day hassles. This is small business reality. Now back to reality.

Referrals 118

Referrals Small Business Small Business Face-to-face 118

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JUNE 26, 2012

In education based marketing, many small business owners to savvy entrepreneurs engage in free offerings from assessments to actual consulting time to marketing webinars to sales training coaching workshops. The day of the 60 minute education based marketing webinar on sales training coaching you get 100 people to attend.

Top of Funnel 152

Top of Funnel Social Media Webinar Metrics Education 152

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APRIL 6, 2013

Mental barriers more often than not are the real obstacles to increase sales and business growth. We hear small business owners and sales professionals all the time saying: I can’t do this. We wanted to share our knowledge to help other small business owners achieve sustainable business growth.

Social Media 127

Social Media Sales Goal Small Business Small Business 127

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JANUARY 12, 2015

This little story exemplifies the marketing approach embraced by many small businesses. Clearly this individual did not know what I did as a small business coach or talent management consultant. What both of these individuals and many other small business owners fail to realize is today’s buyer has changed.

Marketing 70

Marketing Small Business Small Business Insurance 70

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SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

There is no one magic pill for small business owners to increase sales. Today those firms represent less than 5% of all businesses. The super majority of small businesses owners have a small sales team with the small business owner in many cases the sales manager. Share on Facebook.

Journal 137

Journal Small Business Small Business Retail 137