Archive for the ‘Management’ Category

Have you ever walked away from a discussion feeling that you really weren’t heard? How frustrating is that? After all, as an entrepreneur, you’ve got passion, boundless enthusiasm and creativity going for you — all backed up with great products or services.

Well, we’ve all been there! That’s why in BusinessCast #150, Robert and I sat down with Jeff Hendler, a unique coach and trainer who helps business leaders succeed — by helping them truly understand the different ways that targeted people process information. The result: you can adapt your message, your method of communicating, your timing, your body language, etc. — in short, all those things that will help you successfully “get through” to your targeted audience so that they can appreciate the value you bring.

Getting a handle on the psychology of how people take in and respond to information is complex. But, in BusinessCast #150, Jeff provides a handful of powerful tips that you can use now to achieve the impact you’re looking to make in your next critical meeting.

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Marshal Cohen has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Fortune and Time Magazine. He’s also been a guest on The Today Show, CNN and ABC World News. As Chief Industry Analyst for the NPD Group, he provides critical advice and insights into why people make the purchase decisions that they do.

Do you know why prospects purchase your products/services? I mean, do you really understand what’s behind their thinking, their feelings, the obstacles they have to overcome, the choices and trade-offs they make? Because most entrepreneurs experience a disconnect between their sell cycle and their customers’ buying cylce, Marshal Cohen set out to answer these questions in a succinct and practical way in his compelling new book, Buy Me!

For BusinessCast 149, Robert and I sat down with Marshall, the Chief Industry Analyst from the NPD Group — one of North America’s leading market research and consumer marketing firms. Marshal gives real-life insights that will help you:

• Understand the buying process of your current/future customers
  
• Shift buyers’ attention from your competitors’ offerings to yours
• Move buyers’ attention from features to value

Whether you’re focused on consumers or businesses, listen to BusinessCast 149 and you will gain valuable insights that will help you to re-tool your products/services and can beat out your competition.

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We continue to talk with entrepreneurs and thought leaders about why, how and when to leverage social media. Now, we’ve got something special: In BusinessCast #145 — Fotobabble, we get the inside scoop from an entrepreneur who is actually launching what could be the next social media tool.

And, while there are several common themes whenever you’re developing/rolling-out a product or service, bringing a new social media  tool to market has some unique business lessons and challenges.  Listen to BusinessCast #145 and find out what you can take away from Fotobabble’s innovation in action.

Reminder: Next month, the world class event, eMetrics Summit, is coming to Toronto. If you’re a leader or manager looking to truly leverage your online presence, you ask yourself the following questions:

• What online metrics should we collect?
• When should we collect them?
• Where should we collect them?
• Who should collect/interpret them?
  
• How much time/effort/resource should we spend on online metrics?
• How should/can these metrics integrate with offline metrics?
• What do these online metrics truly mean?
• How can we apply the learnings from these online metrics?

The eMetrics Summit helps you get a handle on answering all of these critical issues.

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Seth Godin is probably best known for being the father of “permission marketing”. But, he’s also the World’s most renown marketing “thinker”. His books are international best sellers and senior marketers from across every industry flock to listen to his provocative analysis, insights and predictions. In BusinessCast episode #144, we caught up with Seth at the Art of Marketing conference in Toronto.

As the chosen podcast media guest and sponsor, we also gathered key insights from the event’s other leading speakers/authors, Max Lenderman and Frances Cole Jones.

If you missed out on the Art of Marketing event, watch out for the eMetrics Summit — touring the World’s major centers. The conference remains the gold standard for helping entrepreneurs get a handle on measuring the business value of the Internet’s many platforms (e.g. websites, email, social media and podcasts) and popular tools (e.g. Twitter, YouTube, etc.).

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You’re being courted by a handful of companies that want to purchase your business. Wow! That’s an exciting scenario that many entrepreneurs strive for and consider essential validation that they’ve been successful.

But, the truth is that rather than being an easy destination in itself, this is a critical cross-roads that takes a great deal of determination, patience and focus. The countless number of issues that you need to address include:

• How do you choose between potential buyers?
• Is this the right time to sell?
• What’s your role going to be once the purchase is complete?
• What are your key measures of a success?
• When should you walk away from the deal?
• Who should you involve in the selling process?
• What are the likely surprises that you’ll face?

To get the answers to these questions in BusinessCast #142, we interview Chris Carder, President of Thindata 1:1 — one of North America’s leaders in multi-channel and database-driven marketing solutions.

In March of 2008, Transcontinental purchased the company that Chris and his partners built. So, in BusinessCast #142 Chris provides practical hands-on insights and candidly shares his pre-purchase concerns and post-purchase lessons. This is essential listening for any entrepreneur who ever thinks about selling their company.

*A reminder of upcoming (Toronto) events critical for all business leaders:

• The Art of Marketing (March, 2010)
  
• Emetrics Marketing Optimization Summit (April, 2010)

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