9 Marketing Strategies to Blast Your Profits

Every business owner, even the really successful ones have been guilty of making mistakes in their business. The difference between the truly successful ones and those that aren’t are that they learn from their mistakes and are not afraid to take the risks to deploy strategies to take their business to the next level. Here are nine strategies for you to start using in your business today.

1. Don’t Work Without A Plan You wouldn’t take a vacation without planning your days, activities and your budgets so why would you run your business without a plan. A solid marketing plan is the foundation to every successful business and if you want to achieve greatness, you must be thinking about how you are going to accomplish this each and every day.

2. Stay True to Your Mission and Be The Leader Every business has a brand identity. A reason they went into business and an impression that they want to leave with their customers. Do not sway from your mission. To be the leader in your market, you must be the first to try new things. Do not do what your competition is doing by mimicking their marketing and advertising. Stand apart from the masses and be unique.

3. Consistency is the KeyOnce you have a powerful message, shout it from the rooftops and shout it out often. Your message has to be repeated over and over again and in every communication the business sends out into the marketplace both internal and external – Your marketing material, your website, your employees and every client touch point should be screaming the same message every time.

4. Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up To really accelerate your business, you must build a business based upon referrals. To obtain referrals you must master the art of the follow up. You business will grow from your existing client base either engaging additional services or referring you to others. Keep in touch with them often.

5. Don’t Be A Super Hero Do not try to go at it alone. You are not a superhero and will eventually burn out quickly. Surround yourself with talented people and lead them to victory. You focus on what you do best and outsource other tasks to topic experts who can help advance your business.

6. Wow ‘Em The best activity you can focus on is to wow your customers. Create an experience that they will remember. The best customer experience is generated by the details. Those little things that make all the difference in the world and usually doesn’t cost the business owner much to do.

7. Leverage Your Systems From this point forward, you should be thinking about how you can leverage your business. Everything that you do should be able to support multiple efforts and activities. For example, if you are marketing, how can you use that same marketing in other venues. If you write an article, can you turn that content into other pieces like an ebook, a blog post or a white paper that you can give to your customers.

8. Network Every Day Business is built by the people you meet. Make a goal for yourself to network each and every day. A good system is to commit to reaching out to five new people a day to introduce yourself and to see how you can assist them with no expectation of a returned favor.

9. Build Alliances with Influencers Chances are there are other businesses that complement your offering. Align yourself with those other business owners and collaborate on how you can help each other’s business. This will give you an opportunity to reach a new market, offer new products and build your network within your industry.

Gain the Ultimate Edge by Working With a Business Coach

As business around the world has become increasingly competitivethe demand for innovation, quicker service turnaround and compressed pricing models, has created an environment where business owners must be creative, develop new solutions and manage stressful transitions. They must remain focused on moving their business forward without eroding into their profits, keeping their customers happy and their employees motivated. This great demand for immediate results is a classic precursor to seeking a small business coach.

A small business coach is an independent and objective partner who provides one-on-one interaction, guidance and motivation to a business owner or executive who is looking for feedback and guidance on how to reach a desired goal. A coach is similar to having a partner who holds you accountable, keep you on track, and keep you progressing forward. Coaching is effective for business owners who know what they want to get done, are open to feedback and change but aren’t sure the path to take to get there. A small business coach will work with their clients to help them find the answers and offer them the support and motivation to take the necessary steps.

Some additional benefits of working with a strong business coach are as follows:

·Objective Point of View: One of the biggest benefits of working with a business coach is that they are independent and not linked to the organization; they are linked to only you and where you want to go. Sometimes those that are closest to you cannot provide a truly objective assessment of your situation and won’t be able to guide the business owner effectively. According to an ICF survey, 28% of those surveyed commented that an independent point of view was the most valuable result.

·Idea Sharing, Creativity and Brainstorming: Information is one of the most powerful assets a person can posses and having the ability to leverage a coach’s knowledge and experience is exponentially better. Having the ability to brainstorm and be creative with a coach who is focused on helping you solve a problem is one of the biggest benefits you will experience from a business coaching. 28% of those surveyed commented that brainstorming was the most valuable result.

· Sustained Improvement: Working with a business coach focuses around a goal or a series of goals that will provide a foundation for continuous improvement. A coach helps you leverage your strengths and to become more effective at process and communication improvements and holds you accountable for the results. According to an ICF survey, 15% of those surveyed commented that being accountable to the coach was the most valuable result.

· Motivation: A successful coach will be able to ignite the passion inside and to help you create the positive change necessary to move forward towards your goals. It is a motivational process that brings you through a series of discussions to help find that passion and focus. According to an ICF survey, 15% of those surveyed commented that an encouragement and motivation was the most valuable result.

Business coaching is one of the most effective ways of achieving growth, change and development in both people and organizations. It involves a process and a sounding board for decision making and helps give you more clarity and focus in your day to day operations. Lastly, it will improve your interpersonal skills and your ability to handle tension between business, family and personal needs. When a business owner feels like they are on an island by themselves, a business coach will motivate them to build the raft to get them to safety.

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the “BLAST 90 Day Coaching Program”and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. For a limited time she is offering a FREE 5 part mini course on entrepreneurship offered at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/.

It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know!

In business, you often hear the statement “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!” In the early 1900’s, Napoleon Hill introduced the concept of a mastermind group in his timeless classic “Think and Grow Rich.” He wrote the Mastermind Principle: “the coordination of knowledge and the effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.” Hill also wrote, “No two minds come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.” The powerful result of a mastermind group is that there is a synergy of energy and excitement that partipants bring to the group therefore raising the bar by challenging and encouraging other members to create and implement their goals. Being part of a mastermind group has proven to have many benefits to enterprenaurial success:

Idea Sharing, Creativity and Brainstorming

Information is one of the most powerful assets a person can posses and having the ability to leverage other people’s information is exponentially better. Each group member will come with different experiences, perspectives and ideas that will most likely be your next big money making idea. Having the ability to brainstorm and be creative with a group of people all focused on helping you solve a problem is one of the biggest benefits you will experience from a mastermind group.

Accountability and Responsibility

Most goals are not achieved because as business owners, we are not held accountable to anyone to achieve them. It is our business and we want to procrastinate or put task on the backburner because of other operational issues we deal with, which is our prerogative, right? The second biggest benefit of a mastermind group is that they hold you accountable to reach your goals and monitor your actions to ensure you are on the right path. They act as sounding boards, gatekeepers and test groups all the while asking you where you stand with your plan.

Motivational Support

Staying positive and motivated is a big challenge for some business owners especially after the excitement of starting a business has worn off and the business becomes work. Businesses have many different sides to it and not everything runs smoothly all the time. This can be very frustrating and cause many entrepreneurs to become unmotivated. By surrounding yourself with a mastermind group, you will receive positive encouragement no matter how you perform and the active discussions you will participate in will most likely inspire and stimulate you to move forward.

Networking and Business Relationships

A big part of being in a mastermind group is developing solid relationships with your group members. These relationships have been proven to last a lifetime and be the catalyst for millions of dollars. You will form friendships and connections that will provide you more than just business benefits; it will provide you with a sense of belonging and being part of something special.

Additional Resources

In a year where time is money, having access to additional resources is critical to any business owner’s success. By connecting with peers in your mastermind group, you will be provided with access to the resources that others in your group are using to achieve similar results. This will reduce the time required to find alternative solutions as well as the learning curve usually associated with implementing new solutions. Not to mention, you will save time working within a group versus trying to figure something out on your own.


©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/.

6 Worst Presentation Mistakes Made by Millions

Each time you engage in a conversation, dialogue or speech with the intention of convincing another person to do, think or act upon anything, you are making a presentation. You
don’t have to be in front of large crowds to be giving a presentation or using visual aids such as PowerPoint to be giving a presentation. Presentations are given everyday and are one of the most powerful communication tools exist and has the ability to propel your business, career and sales to ultimate levels. Master presenters get their status by mastering the art of delivery from setting up their content, structuring the flow, controlling non verbal and verbal actions and delivering a powerful message that is engaging and memorable. They master techniques to ultimately reel their audience in and leave them wanting more so why do 99% of the presentations fail?

Mistake # 1: Failure to Focus on the Audience

How many times have you sat thru a presentation where the entire focus was only on the person presenting? Did you feel as though you were sitting thru a “sales presentation”? You know the ones, “My company is great, we do this, and we do that and blah, blah, blah…. Most likely you tuned most of their message out. One of the biggest mistakes presenters make is focusing all of their presentation on an “introduction to my company” with historical data, statistics and overview of why they are so great” versus focusing on the audience and their reasons for inviting you to present. To avoid this mistake personalize your presentation to demonstrate that you have a complete understanding of the audience needs, objectives and decision criteria. Customize your presentation to hit on your audience’s objectives and deliver your key messages in a way that your audience feels that those key messages are just for them. Lastly, successfully connect the dots between the audience’s objectives and your own objectives with clear and concise delivery methods that create an emotional connection.

Mistake # 2: Lack of Clearly Defined Objectives

Too many times, presenters fail to successfully connect the dots between the audience’s objectives and their own objectives. They have a tendency to focus on features rather than highlighting benefits and never clearly state what they hope to get out of the presentation. If you are not clear, your audience will not know what specifically they should be focusing on. You need to develop an uncanny skill to present from a benefit position and clearly build the roadmap to the audience’s goals. As Craig Valentine states in his Free Audio Series “7 Step World Class Speaking Toolkit”, It is important to make a “Big Promise”. What specifically brings you here today, what will your audience gain from listening to you today. Lay the framework for their audience and clearly state what their audience can expect over the next 45 minutes and keep your presentation on task to support that objective.

Mistake # 3: Information Overload

One of the first questions I am always asked by every presenter is” How Many Points should I include in my presentation”? Or “How Many Slides”? Another big mistake presenters make is
they try to squeeze too much information into one presentation. Rather than your audience retaining your key messages, they will retain nothing because of information overload. There is an old wise saying “when you squeeze your information in, you squeeze your audience out”. Selecting the right balance of information for the timeframe allocated to your presentation is a critical decision that a all presenters need to master. As a rule of thumb, most audience will not retain more than 3 key points in an hour presentation. If you are asked to present with less time, adjust your key points down. It is better to be focused and deliver concrete information and leave something out (that you can always direct them to) rather than jam too many points, facts and theories into the time that you have. Too many times a presenter will not adjust their presentation and focus on trying to communicate everything. Be sensitive to the time, adjust your material accordingly and master the art of follow up for the additional points.

Mistake #4: Putting the audience to sleep!

A presentation that is not engaging and exciting is a complete bore. Nobody wants to be subject to a boring presentation and if you do not make your exciting, chances are you’re your
audience will be angered at the fact that you wasted their time. Remember, time is our biggest asset and people do not give it away freely. Bad presenters fail to grab the audience’s attention and make that emotional connection that connects their key messages and usually leaves their audience feeling bored and unfulfilled. Master Presenters know how to use techniques that tease and make their audience wanting more, they know how to adjust the tone of their voice and to pause at the right moment. They effectively use images to reinforce the emotional element of their presentation and they use stories and provocative questions to engage the mind as the audience waits for the answer in the presentation. Master Presenters are skilled at creating an event and making an emotional connection with their audience each and every time. I often refer to Steve Jobs and his product presentations which are exciting, engaging and powerful. If you have never seen this master at work, I would recommend visiting Apple’s website and taken a look at one of his videos.

Mistake # 5: Death by PowerPoint

Misusing visual aids is a common mistake many presenters make. They try to take all their content and jam it into a slide so they don’t forget what they want to say. To make it worse, they stand up in front of the crowd and read the entire slide deck. Chances are your audience is wondering why they are being read to and are not connecting to the material and the content. Visual aids should be used to enhance a presentation, not be the presentation. The use of images can be one of the most effective ways to stimulate emotion and when used correctly, can really hit home a key message. An example would be – Suppose you want your audience to answer the question “how big is an acre of land”?, you could put statistics up on the slide that state the numerical dimensions and square feet and hope that your audience can relate to numbers, or you could put up a photo of a football field and state “it’s about the size of a football field”. The impact would be completely different! To go a step further to making an emotional connection, you could tell a simple story about the football field and make it relevant to reinforce one of your key messages. Learn how to drive the message home using images without overwhelming content and you will avoid this common mistake.

Mistake #6: No Call to Action

The last mistake focuses on failure to ask for what you want. If you were invited to do a sales presentation, ask for the business. If you were invited to introduce your company, ask for the next meeting. Every presentation must have a call to action or the audience will not know what you want them to do with the information you are providing. Give them a task to do after the presentation. This action will reinforce your key message and get them thinking about what they have just learned. Master presenters know how to leave their audience with a task to perform and always go for the close.

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/.

5 Reasons to Publish Your Own Ezine

What if you had the power to increase your marketing reach by thousands for a fraction of the expense of traditional direct mail? How about the ability to position yourself as an expert in your field simply by writing an article? This is was publishing an ezine can do for you in just a matter of weeks. An Ezine is just a fancy way of saying E-Newsletter and is one of the best marketing tools available to business owners today. Now there are a dozen of reasons why an ezine can help build your business and drive profits, but here are my top five.



1. An ezine helps you position yourself as an expert in your field.An ezine is a great medium for communicating to your clients and prospects. Through articles you establish yourself as an expert in the topics you write about and by supplying informative and great content, you can create a loyal base of readers who are all potential clients. You create credibility, expertise and trust with each article by showing your readers what you know, how much you know about that topic and providing them with insight into you as an individual. By showcasing your knowledge and expertise, not only will you attract more clients, but you will also attract other media attention resulting in your articles being published in other ezines, directories, newspapers and magazines and overall, increasing your reach beyond your current client list. If you content is good, people will want to read more from you and will find out how to subscribe to your list to get it.

2. An ezine provides you a very effective way to promote your business and to stay in touch with your customers and prospects. Staying in touch with your customers is one of the most important techniques in retaining customers. You need to remind them that you are still around and that you still have a valuable product and/or service to offer. An ezine provides you with another way to reach out with very little effort. It is noninvasive and contains valuable resources with great articles and recommendations that your customers will begin to look forward to. It is great way to keep them informed of what you have been up to and what your plans are to move the business further. Do anything to stay out in front of your competition and in front of your customers at all times.

3. An ezine provides you with a method to grow your customer and reader list to market and sell your products to over and over again. The most effective way to build your business is through creating relationship and recurring revenue. One of the biggest assets a business has is their client and prospecting list. People buy from people who they like and trust. Not only will they buy from you once, if you are providing true value in your product and/or service, they will buy from you again and again. They will become your greatest cheerleaders and sales people by promoting you and your business to everyone they know, forwarding your articles and providing you with an opportunity to start the list building process over to your new audience. The greatest thing about an ezine is that you can stop marketing one to one and begin marketing to hundreds, thousands or even millions at once. Law of averages, if you increase your reach in terms of numbers, chances are you will increase your conversion to sales.

4. An ezine allows you to grow your business outside your market and allows you to spread the word about your product and/or services.The World Wide Web has had a tremendous impact on the way business is conducted today. It has provided opportunities for the little guy to play in the same ocean as the big fish. The internet has provided boundless opportunities to expand your reach and to evolve your business beyond your local radius and beyond your four walls. A reader of my ezine, brought an opportunity to me to expand my ice cream store into a mobile cart business located into the city. Another reader forwarded my ezine to a friend who happened to own an internet gift service business. This individual contacted me and together we created http://www.sayitwithicecream.com/ a place on the web where you can order ice cream cakes for your kids away at college, business associates or family members. An ezine is the catalyst for growth. Once you connect with your readers, the connection keeps on growing and your list continues to build and your reach will go far beyond your wildest dreams.

5. An ezine is inexpensive and easy to publish. Most likely you are using traditional marketing methods to spread the word about your company including direct mail campaigns. Maybe you are sending out postcards, newsletters or product announcements and go through the process of designing your piece, creating and verifying your addresses, creating labels, stuffing envelopes and bringing to the post office for delivery. After your campaign is said and done, you have spent a lot of money on design and postage and no way to verify receipt. In some markets this is a very effective marketing technique but with the onset of e-mail marketing, there is a less expensive way to accomplish the same goal and verify receipt. Email marketing allows you to consolidate your marketing for a fraction of the cost of traditional direct mail methods and gets the word out faster. In addition, with the fancy systems out there geared towards the novice but created to capture data, you will have a complete understanding of your delivery rates and even can easily measure and track who opened your email, who forwarded your email and who bought from your email.

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/.

“Navigating the Changing Winds: 6 Master Strategies to Building Customer Loyalty”

The winds – “they are a changing my friend”…. The current state of the economy, a new President, failing financial systems, fluctuating prices and high unemployment have caused many of us to pause and evaluate opportunities to reduce expenses and to optimize our performance. As our economy continues to fluctuate, controlling expenses and optimizing service levels from partners and vendors is going to become the focus for all of our customers. We all must be sensitive to these “changing winds” and enhance the experience of our customers each time we interact with them. We must go back to the basics of serving our customers and take the actions that make a difference. The simple actions – a patient ear, a please, a thank you, a quick update on status (even if you don’t’ have update to give – the fact you are reaching out to let them know you are working on their problem goes a long way) and a smile that can be heard over the phone are all simple things that we can do each and every day to stand apart from our competition.

The art of hospitality can be very profitable, but it does take some practice and effort. To succeed, you must be dedicated to customer service first, always demonstrating that you care about their issues. Although customers may not always be right, we all must agree that it is okay for them to be wrong. Treat everyone with concern and compassion. After all, our business is not about us – it’s about the people we service and that single fact is more critical now as we navigate the changing winds…

Below are 6 strategies that when applied, will evolve your customer service to the next level – customer loyalty.

Master Strategy # 1: Know your customer

Customers are not a dime a dozen…they come with a variety of different characteristics, desires, needs and expectations. It is important to know everything that you can about your customers to ensure you are offering the most value. From basic information, name, address, title and area of responsibility to wants, needs and pressures and everything in between, it is important to understand your customer to enhance communication, articulate your proposition and to develop the foundation for trust.

Master Strategy # 2: Develop a customer strategy

Companies spend a lot of time and money developing strategic plans for their business, their technology solutions, operational strategies and financial strategies but rarely develop a customer strategy. Developing a good plan to enhance each client’s individual experience will result in uncovering areas for improvement and areas where you excel that may easily translate to another client. By writing a strategy on each client and personalizing that strategy based upon what you know about your customers (Master Strategy #1), you will memorialize a systematic approach and philosophy that will be easily followed by all in your company.

Master Strategy # 3: Deliver on your promise

Customers bought your product or service based upon a promise that you or your company has made. Make sure that you always deliver on your promise and therefore maintaining trustworthiness with your customers. Customers want to purchase from companies and people they trust to deliver the product and/or service they need and with the value they expect. According to the book, Trust Based Selling, Trustworthiness consists of four factors: Credibility, Reliability, Intimacy and Self-Orientation. The combination of these factors used in the right combinations will develop a connection with your customers that will lead to a long time relationship.

Master Strategy # 4: Educate your staff

Educate your front lines with your customer knowledge. The characteristic of your customers, what they are buying, the promises that were made and train your staff on how to not only deliver customer service but how to go over and beyond the basics. They should know how to react in all situations and be empowered to respond to the customers’ requests. They should know it is okay to tell the customer that they don’t know the answers, but will find out and get right back to them. Customer service is a culture and a theme that must permeate your entire organization.

Master Strategy # 5: Over Promise and Over Deliver

Make sure you provide true customer service. In today’s market, service has become a buzzword thrown around by every company, but it is important to understand that customer service is now a baseline expectation and not considered an added value. Customer service is no longer a key differentiator but going over and above the call of duty, well that will set you apart. I recently heard of a story of a retail store owner, selling women’s clothing, overheard customers in her store looking for a place to eat. She not only made a recommendation but picked up the phone and called the local restaurant to make a reservation on behalf of her customer. – She went over and beyond the basics. Here is an great opportunity to over promise and over deliver. Set yourself apart from the competition and be unique. Be creative and personalize your service specific to your individual customer. One size does not fit all in this case and offering personalized customer service will assist you in developing your unique brand.

Master Strategy # 6: Make it easy for your customers to do business with you

Leave all the guess work out and make it easy for your customer to do business with you. Have your staff go through the same process and channels that your customers will so they can experience the same exact experience your customers will have. Make adjustments to your current process if needed and always put on your customer hat and understand how your services are being evaluated through the customer eyes. Is it easy to request your product or service? What if there is a problem? Is it easy to escalate an issue? Is it easy to check on a status? Is there a long wait time? Is there a consistency each time the customer calls? These are all important questions that you must understand in order to make it easy for your customers to do business with you.


By taking the time to apply some or all of these strategies, you will create a culture centered on top notch customer service. By educating your team on expectations and providing them the roadmap to deliver the serviced you expect, will not only make your customers more loyal but will make your business more profitable. Simply stated, happy customers buy more and tell more friends about their experience. Use that as an opportunity to build upon your already stellar brand!



©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/

5 Steps to Continuous Improvement

The driving force behind Japanese culture is the philosophy of Kaizen or in translation, continuous improvement. Kaizen is a daily process of applying ideas that gradually bring you closer to an improvement and can be applied at work or in life. When applied to the workplace, Kaizen can deliver significant results through tiny actions in areas of productivity, employee morale and safety. Companies that embrace this philosophy encourage people at all levels, from the CEO down to evaluate their surroundings and work processes and implement suggestions to improve workflow, standards and process. The end result is that improvements eventually lead to better quality, better productivity and higher profits.

Below are 5 Steps to help you use Kaizen in your organization:

1. Define a Problem

If no problems existed, then there is no potential for improvement. First step is to recognize that a problem does exist. Most times the people who create the problem are not sensitive to it since they are not inconvenienced by it every day and nobody wants to admit that they created a problem. Think positive and look at a problem as an opportunity for improvement rather than an issue.

2. Create a Standard

If you don’t have a standard, how can you improve upon it or know that you are improving? There must be a standard of measure for everything in your business, whether it is a worker, machine, process or manager. There has to be a baseline measurement that exists so you continually grow to surpass that standard.

3. Develop 3 – 5 Good Ideas

Once you have identified the problem and the standard that you need to improve upon, the next step in the process is to develop 3 to 5 good ideas. Ones that pass the PCST (personal common sense test). These ideas can come from anywhere within the organization through a suggestion system where people can share their ideas. This will improve morale and let the employees buy into the process through participation. Once you have all the suggestions, select the best 3 to 5. Select the ones that are easily implemented and will yield results within 120 days.

4. Implement Ideas

Kaizen is all about action. You selected the best 3 to 5 ideas that will yield a result within 120 days because it is all about gradual and continuous improvement. Most companies have grandiose ideas and want to solve world hunger in 120 days, the approach we want you to take is to start buying a hungry man a sandwich.


5. Go back to step 1

The last step of the process is to start it over again – hence the word continuous. The goal is to pick your ideas and implement them within 120 days and then implement another set of ideas after that and again and again and again.


In Kaizen, you do not have to focus on grand ideas. In fact the best results and the best ideas are usually the smaller ones because they can be implemented easily and employees will be motivated and begin to like the winning feeling. Once they have that feeling in their gut, they will want more and more and more an eventually bring your organization to the highest level of efficiency.


©2009 Kellie D’Andrea & Associates


Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?

You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at www.kelliedandrea.com.

Is Customer Service is the New Marketing?

I was browsing the web and came across an advertisement for a 1 day seminar called Customer Service is the New Marketing. I was intrigued by the title since I firmly believe that customer service should be a part of your marketing strategy. As a small business owner and a marketing consultant, I have found that providing a strong customer service base at your businesses, word of mouth will take off and you customers will reward you with relaying their positive experiences to their friends, families and business associates each chance they get.

Excellent customer service is the lifeblood of any business and a very critical piece to success when facing a bad economy and many competitors. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long. Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.

Below are the ten golden rules for Excellent Customer Service:

1. Answer your phone
2. Don’t make promises unless you WILL keep them
3. Listen to your customers
4. Deal with complaints
5. Be helpful – even if there’s no immediate profit in it
6. Train your staff to be ALWAYS helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable
7. Take the extra step
8. Throw in something extra
9. Keep in touch – you don’t want your customers to forget you
10. The customer IS always right, even when they are wrong



©2009 Kellie D’Andrea & Associates





Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?

You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/.

5 Thoughts when Creating a Customer Service Strategy

Many companies work each year on their strategic plans including how to evolve their technology solutions, their marketing positions and how to become more efficient in operations. They work diligently each year on putting together annual budgets and resource plans but how often do they put together a customer service strategy? A plan that focuses on knowing what your clients want, what their pain points are and what their needs for efficiencies are.

Some tips:

1) Know you customer at different levels

Don't just focus on one single point of contact. Each position within a client firm has different needs. go the extra mile, learn what your customers challenges are at different points within the organization. People move around, the more you know about your customers and the more people you stay in contact with, the stronger relationship you will have with your customer.

2) Establish a group who owns the high level relationship

A customer service group that focuses on the relationship rather than the day to day problem resolution or service delivery is integral to a successful customer service strategy. Set up performance metrics and a customer communication plan and hold this team accountable for the success of the relationship.

3) Develop a customer scorecard or metrics to manage and evaluate success

By establishing a set of expectations in the beginning and agreeing on how you will be measured makes it easier to track your accomplishments. By creating metrics and service standards, it is easy to highlight you positives. How many times do you get in trouble with a customer over a single mistake? Most people live in the moment and may need to be reminded of all the good.

4) Make sure your executive team reaches out

Customers want to feel special. Have a communication plan that requires the CEO or President to reach out to say hello or to check up on how the company is performing. And not just to the customer CEO, have them reach out to your day to day contact... it will make them feel special.

5) Always ask how you can improve

Markets, trends and industry change daily. Not to mention the players in your field. Always inquire about your performance and always be prepared to make changes. What worked yesterday might not work today. What was one individual preference may not be the next.. The key is to keep communicating and be very responsive to your customers changing needs.

©2009 Kellie D’Andrea & Associates


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You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at www.kelliedandrea.com.

5 Tips to Becoming a Networking Rockstar!

Networking is a tool that will put you on the path towards success. Business are grown from the personal relationships we develop throughout our career and being able to reach out and build positive business connections can be the single most important step you can take in building and marketing your business. So why don't more entrepreneurs network? - Fear.

Remember as a kid being afraid to be the last one picked for kickball. Remember being afraid that when you went to a new school, you wouldn't make any friends. These memories are with us today as adults and the idea of going into a room of strangers to introduce themselves leaves a pit in the bottom of their stomach and can be classified up there with the fear of public speaking.

I have put together some tips to help overcome those fears at your next networking event because the right connections with the right people can maximize your business position and provide you with insight and opportunities that are guaranteed to boost your profits.


1. Enter the room like you just got off the red carpet!

Confidence is infectious. When you enter into a room like you are comfortable in you skin, smiling and approachable, everyone will be wondering "who is that". More importantly, if you don't end up seeking these guest out, they will seek you out. The great thing is that most people in that room do not know you, your background or what you stand for, here is a great opportunity to create the Confident You and live it at your next networking event. The positive energy you will be projecting outward will come back to you tenfold.


2. Remember to warm up before your performance.

Most likely your nerves are giving you the jitters and you just made it through the front door as confident as you could be but are struggling with how long you could hold on to it. You best course of action is to warm up with a friendly “fan”. After you enter, circle the room (which will also work off an excess nervous energy) and seek out the individual that looks just as terrified as you feel and introduce yourself. A simple question or observation will do the trick “Wow, it looks like we have some good turnout tonight”, Don’t you think? By the way, I am <>> and you are? What brings you here? Once you break the ice with one friendly fan, a renewed energy will surface and you will find yourself opening up to others and finding common interest. Remember to ask a lot of questions and be truly interested in the conversation and the connections will come.

3. Let your Roadies do the work.

As you make friends, bring them along. There is safety in numbers and friends are usually connected. Make it a priority to connect with the people they know. It will ease the fear of the unknown and provide you with something in common to talk about. Once you connect , join the organization and attend the events that your friends do. Before you know it, you have a complete social network of individuals and professionals who you will become more familiar with and more comfortable with. With each new friend, you network should grow 10 times.


4. Use the newest recording technology.

Social media sites are a great way to communicate and to stay connected during the times between your face to face events. Facebook, Linked In and Twitter are easy to use and a great way to send out blast updates on what you have been up to and to comment on others. In addition to your “offline” networking, mastering social media sites is a great way to leverage your connections, expand your network beyond your local area and build relationships one post at a time.


5. Build up your fan base -Follow up, Follow up, Follow Up.

You have connected with many people, found common interest and exchanged business cards. Make sure to follow up ASAP. A great tip is to send out your V card which houses all of your electronic information in outlook and can be sent and uploaded into your new connections outlook. If you discovered that this person can help you, make plans to keep in touch over time so you do not lose that connection. Relationships are built one day at a time through consistency, genuine interest and friendship. If you remember all the skills you developed as a child when you found a new friend than you want to use those skills with your adult friend. Always keep them updated on what you are doing, make plans for lunch and offer to help out when needed.



©2009 Kellie D’Andrea & Associates
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Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?

You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic maketing techniuqes that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entreprenuars make at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/