Concrete Angel

Social Marketing 101

I haven’t had breakfast

WMS Soccer

I am excited to be the new boy’s varsity soccer coach at Western Mennonite School. It should be another great year for the soccer program!

I’m setting up a special web address that will keep players, parents, and fans updated. It will be located at www.timfahndrich.com/WMSsoccer. Don’t go there yet — it isn’t ready :-), but check back in a day or so.

See you soon.

Quote of the Day:

“The number one challenge in marketing is to get your prospect’s attention and the second challenge is to get your prospect to trust you and believe your message.”

– David Frey

Wow, I can’t believe I waited this long …

Ok, I have a confession to make. Sometimes I’m pretty bad at procrastinating. Here’s an example… I’ve been hearing about a service called RoboForm. It is a system that securely stores all of your passwords and fills them in for you when you come to site that you routinely have to login to.

Well, I first heard about it many months ago, and figured that I would eventually get around to doing it. Yesterday, I finally installed it. WOW! I can’t believe I waited this long! It is a fantastic service.

I have so many sites where I have to login in. With RoboForm, I just save my username and password in the system, and whenever I come to that site, it fills in the information for me and logs me in. It is definitely a time-leveraging device.

I would highly recommend it! Don’t procrastinate like I did … sign up today!

The Truth About Selling …

I received an email from my friend David Frey. David lives in the Houston area and is a relationship, referral, and and marketing expert (and how to combine them all). He is the president of Marketing Best Practices, Inc.

In the email, he passed along a fantastic article from a friend of his by the name of Bob Burg. Bob is the author of Endless Referrals.

The article is excellent! How many times have you heard someone say “I don’t like to sell”, “I don’t like salespeople”, or something along those lines. I remember my grandparents saying that “I guess we’re just not salespeople”…

Well, if you’ve ever heard that, and want to have a true and effective understanding of what sales is really all about, please read the article below:

_______________________________________________________

“The Truth About Selling”

By Bob Burg

http://www.burg.com/

As I took my seat in the crowded airplane, the woman in the next seat over smiled. “Headed home?” she asked. I nodded. “Jupiter, Florida.””My, you’re a long way from home!” she exclaimed. We were on the tarmac in Regina, Saskatchewan. “What brought you to Regina?”I told her I had been conducting a seminar for a sales organization. She wrinkled her nose. “Oh,” she pronounced…”I could never sell.”

This wasn’t the first time I’d heard this. In fact, most people not actually in sales seem to feel this way. I asked her, if she didn’t mind, how would she define “selling”? I was curious as to what it was she felt she could never do. She frowned in thought. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment. “I guess, maybe, ‘pushing things on other people.’ ” “Ah. Well in that case, I wouldn’t be very good at it either,” I replied. “I don’t really like it when people do that to me. Do you?” “Not at all,” she answered promptly.”Do you buy from those people?” “No way!” she said. “Me neither.” We both smiled.

After a moment, I went on. “But what if,” I paused and thought for a moment … what if we defined selling as… ‘Helping someone get something they want or need? ‘What if we defined it as adding value to someone’s life? Did you know that the original Old English word sellan meant to give?” She shook her head.”I didn’t either, but I looked it up. Amazing, isn’t it?” She nodded.

“What if we saw selling that way, as giving – as sharing the benefits of a product that we ourselves love, and helping others get those same benefits? If we saw it that way, do you think you’d feel it was something you might be able to do?” “If I really believed in it myself?” she said. “Well .. . definitely!”

“So, maybe it isn’t that you could never sell,” I suggested, “just that you’d really need to feel you were helping someone, adding value to their life, giving value and sharing the benefits of something that you yourself truly believed in.””Yes” she replied excitedly. “That, I could definitely do.””Me too!” I replied. “I think just about everyone could. And that’s exactly what I was just teaching at the sales conference. “Helping people is the essence of selling.”

At the end of the flight I introduced her to one of the women from the sales conference where I’d spoken who happened to be on the flight. As I rushed to my next gate, I left the two of them in animated conversation about the possibilities in store for this young woman in the exciting field of professional sales.

The day after arriving home, I had another exchange about selling. At a local lunch place I often frequent, I passed by Bill, an architect and genuinely nice guy whom I see there often, and with whom I typically share cordial “How are you?” type greetings. Bill commented that he hadn’t seen me for a week. “On another speaking trip?” he surmised. Yes, I told him, I had been. “You look happy – bet you sold a lot while you were gone!” he said with a twinkle in his eye. I laughed and said, “Of course, of course.” He shook his head and said benignly… “Sales…the necessary evil of business, right?”

I could have launched into the same sort of explanation I’d shared with the woman on the plane, but Bill and I were just passing each other in a restaurant line. It was neither the time nor place to launch into an explanation of the benevolent nobility of the selling profession. Another time . . . Still, it’s a shame. The necessary evil of business . . . There are people who see it this way.

Personally, I think of selling as the most positive aspect of business. We all have products and services that enrich our lives, that we need, want and even love. The fact is, we love to buy and we love to own… and it often takes a sales person to educate us and help us connect our needs and desires with the benefits that those products and services provide our lives. This not only benefits us personally, it also provides the basis for a vibrant and growing free market economy. Selling is giving- giving time, education, advice, counsel, value – and the more you give, the more you get. Knowing that, how could anyone not sell . . . and not be proud to do so?

—–

Would you like to view a brief video about the true art of selling? Then go to http://www.theartofsellingmovie.com/ . I think you’ll really enjoy it. At the end, you’ll be able to download (at no cost) Chapter One of Bob’s underground bestseller, Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts into Sales (over 175,000 copies sold).

You may also want to add value to someone else by passing along a link for this brief video. It may inspire – and it will let them know (without you saying it) what kind of principles you stand for in the world of sales.

Relationships & teams: How it relates to business

I just finished watching (for the umpteenth time) my favorite movie of all time: Hoosiers. Yes I’m a huge basketball fan. I’m not totally sure why it is my favorite movie. Perhaps it brings back memories of my high school basketball career, one in which we took 3rd in state as a school of only 87 kids. Perhaps Gene Hackman reminds me of my coach Royce Miller, “We’re going to play fundamental basketball”. Or perhaps I like the story of an underdog overcoming all odds to win.

As I watched again tonight, I was struck by a couple of things.

1. There is tremendous power in sincere caring. In the movie, Gene Hackman truly cares about his players. On several occasions he put the interests of his players above his. He says at one point, “I love you guys”. In return, the players wanted to play hard for the guy. That is what a team building and relationships is all about. Once again, it reminded me of my coach. I distinctly remember to this day how he personally and sincerely thanked each player after our final game for the special season that we had.

2. The power of team. You’ve heard it said many times, there is no “I” in team. This is so true. In the movie and on our team … we came together and played together as a team. Yes, there were some go-to guys that we could trust to put the ball in the hoop… but we didn’t care so much about who that was … we just wanted to go out every night, play hard, and play together for a win.

3. The power of a second chance. The coach in the movie gave second chances. He gave it to players, and he gave it to an assistant coach. Once again, he cared about them. I had to think about this morning’s sermon in church. It was on patience. Hmmm…? Who do I need to give a second chance to?

I think all three of these things apply to our business endeavors.

1. Show sincere appreciation for others, regardless of whether they put money in your pocket, and people will want to do business with you and refer you to others.

2. Build a team of people who gel together so you are clicking on all cylinders.

3. Finally, if someone does something to you in business that perhaps hurt you or damaged your reputation … go talk to them. Don’t let it build bitterness. Perhaps they didn’t even know that they hurt you and / or maybe they could use a second chance too.

If you haven’t ever watched the movie … I’d highly recommend it.

Until next time,

~ Tim

(By the way, the movie is loosely based on a true story … one of the greatest sports stories in history about the 1954 Milan Indians of Milan, Indiana)

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I had a chance to host Greeters for the Salem Chamber of Commerce on June 15th at the Northern Lights Theater Pub. It was a great opportunity to share some of my thoughts on relationship marketing and how SendOutCards can play an important part in helping business persons build stronger relationships with their clients and prospects.

Here is what I covered:

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• What types of businesses can benefit from SendOutCars
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If you missed it and would like to view a video (27 minutes) of the presentation, you can view it here.

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LandscapeUSA posts have a new home

I have decided to create a separate web site and blog for my LandscapeUSA customers. It can be found here.

Thank you.