I say that’s a load of crap. We are all natural born sales people. It’s just that somewhere along the line we unlearned this very natural skill.

Don’t believe me? Watch your kids.

Think Big

Kids automatically think big. They don’t think, “Oh that’s too much. I’d better think smaller.” No, they dream big.

My son is a perfect example. He is currently working on his Christmas list so I can tell the grandparents and other relatives what he wants. He has three (three!?!) items on his list that are over $200.

Now I know that having three sets of grandparents (the in-laws are divorced) means he gets a little more loot than the average kid. But I promise you, I’m not in the habit of giving him outrageous gifts. Quite the opposite in fact. Instead of the iPod he asked for two years ago, he got a generic version that cost less than $50 from Canadian Tire.

This lack of bounty obviously hasn’t deterred him however. He’s still aiming big. And if he doesn’t get the big ticket items he’s hoping for, that still won’t stop him. Several out-of-town relatives send his favorite present – cheques! Odds are if he adds them all up he’ll only have to save his allowance for a couple on months to get one of the top items on his list.

Ask the Right Person

A cornerstone of sales is making sure you’re talking to the decision maker. There’s no point in going through your entire sales process only to find out the person you’re speaking to can’t make the decision to buy.

Kids instinctively know this. When asking for something outside the norm, they know exactly which parent is the soft touch and which will say no. And if both parents are hard nosed, they head straight for the grandparents.

I remember as a child my mother wouldn’t allow me to wear jeans to school; she thought they were too casual. I just “happened” to mention this to my great aunt. She promptly went out and bought me three pairs of jeans then got on the phone with my mother. After verbally spanking her, my aunt refused to get off the phone until she had extracted a promise that the dress code would be relaxed.

No doesn’t really mean no

Persistence is the key to selling. Just because someone says no today, doesn’t mean they won’t say yes in the future. Kids have this in spades. If you say no to something they really want, they don’t hear “no”, they hear “ask me again tomorrow, and the next day and the next…”

Why do kids employ these strategies? Because they know they work. If they never got a yes, they’d eventually give up.

So, the next time you have to make a sale, learn from your kids. If a ten-year-old can do it, so can you.

Andrea J. Stenberg

How to Add Twitter to LinkedIn

This means you can now have Twitter update your LinkedIn status and vice versa. For someone like me who is a heavy user of both LinkedIn and Twitter, this added functionality is much appreciated.

To add Twitter, log into you LinkedIn account. From your Home page, scroll down to the bottom. On the right hand column you’ll see an “Add an application” link. Click on this and you’ll see a drop down menu similar to the one on the right. Select “Tweets” and follow the instructions. It should take you about a minute to set up.

One key feature to note  is you can choose whether all your Tweets are sent to your LinkedIn status or only specific ones. This is important in my mind as many people have a more chatty style on Twitter than they might be appropriate for LinkedIn.

Retweets, links and many of the @reply conversations on Twitter really wouldn’t fit the culture of LinkedIn. If you are updating your LinkedIn status too often because you are a heavy Twitter user you run the risk of annoying your LinkedIn network.

Although, who knows: maybe over time this feature will loosen up the more formal culture of LinkedIn as people are given more of a chance to show their personality.

If you choose to limit which Tweets update your LinkedIn status (and unless you Tweet very infrequently, I think you should), you need to add the hashtag #in or #li to any Tweets you want sent to LinkedIn. Of course, if you choose the limited setting, you have to ensure to remember to add the hashtags.

You can also update Twitter from your LinkedIn profile. You can do this two ways. When you update your status you can have it sent to Twitter as well or you can actually send a Tweet from within LinkedIn and have it update Twitter. If you do it this way, your Tweet doesn’t update your LinkedIn status unless you add the hashtag.

This connectivity is particularly powerful for people who use one site more than the other. For example, people who Tweet frequently but don’t log into LinkedIn every day will be able maintain an active presence on LinkedIn. They won’t have their status being days or even weeks old. Of course, they will still need to log in to monitor their emails, connection requests and participate in Answers and Groups.

This connectivity is so new it’s hard to know how many LinkedIn users will actually use it. However, if people respect the culture of LinkedIn when posting Tweets, I think it can only enhance both sites.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Will you be adding Twitter to your LinkedIn profile? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think of this.

This week’s carnival includes posts about Anti-Aging Clinics, Short Sleeves, Chocolate, finding your passion, a youngest child’s 30th birthday and more. I know you’ll enjoy this week’s offerings so please head on over and check out the carnival.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Table of contents for Using Google to Market Your Business

1. Using Google to Market Your Business
2. Using Google to Market Your Business Part 2: Google Analytics
3. Using Google to Market Your Business Part 4: Google Keyword tool
4. Using Google to Market Your Business Part 3: YouTube

When it comes to marketing your business, there’s no better way than turning up in the top search results on Google. Since more and more people are using search engines rather than the phone book to locate business (even local businesses) you’d better make sure people can find you.

To get found, you need a plan to optimize your website so the search engines bring your website up first. This process is known as search engine optimization (SEO). Some of the basics of SEO include:

• Having search engine friendly URLs. For example: www.mywebsite.com/rosesforsale instead of www.mywebsite.com/index.php?forumid&#4589482%.  Not only are these URLs more search engine friendly, they’re more people friendly.
• Using appropriate keywords in the friendly URLs, as well as in the header of your page and within the body copy.
• Getting incoming links, particularly from relevant websites. For example a florist would do better getting links from a wedding planner or interior designer than from a mechanic.
• Having a sitemap

However, if you are a small business competing against hundreds or thousands of other businesses worldwide who are all online, certain keywords are just always going to be out of reach for you. Not matter how good you get at SEO you just won’t be able to crack the top ten because the competition is so fierce.

This is where the long tail comes in. Chris Anderson in his book The Long Tail popularized this concept. Basically the idea is to ignore the main keywords in your industry and instead focus on keywords that don’t have quite as much traffic but also don’t have as much competition. Roses might be a main keyword but Mothers Day Roses Owen Sound is a long tail keyword.

If you can optimize your website for keywords that only have 3,000 searchers each month but you can get in the top three fairly quickly you’ll likely get more traffic than if you optimize for keywords that have 100,000 monthly searches but you show up as item number 30.

The trick however is to figure out which long tail keywords to use. This is where Google Keyword Tool comes in. Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and you can type in keywords you think customers might use when searching for your products and services. Google generates a list of keywords plus suggestions and shows you local and worldwide searches for that keyword in the previous month.

Not only that, but Google will generate suggested related keywords. You can download the entire list as a text file or Excel spreadsheet. You can then take a closer look at the keywords and their traffic. Pick ones you haven’t been optimizing for and add a blog post or page to your website that uses those keywords. Then make sure you’re using Google Analytics to track what happens to that particular page as compared to other pages on your site.

Here’s a video walking you through the process.

Andrea J. Stenberg

If you missed them before, you might want to read Search Engine Optimization: Increase Your Chance of Getting Found Locally or Five Reasons to Learn About SEO and Use it On Your Site.

This outstanding balance is affecting her business because she’s now having to make decisions based on the balance in her bank account, not her business plan.

And according to her, the people who haven’t paid aren’t businesses struggling because of the recession. These are healthy, successful businesses. They just aren’t paying. In fact, some are months past due. To add insult to injury, a couple of clients “forgot” to pay their deposit so at this point she’s out the entire fee.

My friend has been sending out reminder notices and has added interest onto invoices but so far, no results.

So, if you’re in a similar situation, what should you do?

First, make sure every client is clear on your payment terms before you start work. Some people feel uncomfortable talking about money. If that sounds like you, get over it! You’re in business and that means you need to be able to talk about money.

Second, make sure to send invoices right away. If you provide a service, have the invoice prepared and give it to the customer on completion. If you provide a product, include the invoice with delivery. The sooner the customer gets the invoice, the sooner they will pay.

Next, you need a system for following up on invoices. Any invoice that is past due needs a reminder notice send immediately. Don’t wait a week or a month. As soon as it’s past due, send out the reminder.

If you don’t get a response after the first reminder notice, I’d suggest it’s time to put away the stamps and pick up the phone. Call and ask when they are sending the payment. Be polite but don’t just accept a vague “soon”. Ask for a specific date. If they can’t pay the entire amount, ask for a payment plan with the initial payment sent immediately. Some money is better than none.

If an initial phone call doesn’t work, you may have to try again. This time be sure you’re speaking with the correct person. If it’s a small company, speak to the owner not the book keeper. If it’s a larger company, speak to your customer not the accounting department. Enlist their help in getting paid.

Over the years I’ve known a few small business owners who seem to make a game out of how long they can get away without paying anyone. If you have a customer like that, the best suggestion is to drop into their business unannounced and ask if you can pick up the cheque. Be sure to have a copy of the invoice with you because in all likelihood they will be unable to “find” the original invoice.

The key to outstanding invoices is to stay on top of them. If you wait too long, the customer will have forgotten the value of your product or service and feel less inclined to pay. Also, if they still owe you money, you’re not going to get more business out of them. If they need your product or service before their outstanding balance is paid, they may just go to a competitor.

A word about deposits. If you routinely require a deposit before starting work, don’t make exceptions. If someone “forgets” to bring their chequebook when they place the order, simply tell them to drop it off when they can and you’ll get started on their work as soon as you’ve received it. Unless this is your best customer, don’t go ahead without it.

After all, if they can’t manage to make that payment to ensure you start the work, how quickly are they going to pay you once they have the finished product in their hands? It never fails: whenever you make an exception about deposits, that will be the person who doesn’t pay.

Remember, you provided good value to your customers. You deserve to get paid. You are not making unreasonable demands, just insisting you get paid what was agreed upon.

Andrea J. Stenberg

I’m going to follow my advice and send an invoice to a client. What are you going to do today to ensure your receivables are up to date?

Anyway, Blogging Boomers Carnival #138 includes a very interesting mix of articles: dating and sex, black leather, travel insurance, alimony, opening wine without a cork screw and much more. So head on over to The Boomer Chronicles and sample this week’s offering.

Andrea J. Stenberg

The main reason people give is “I just don’t get it. Why does anyone care that I’m having lunch or going to the bathroom.”

Well I can tell you now, no one cares that you’re going to the bathroom! That’s truly T.M.I. – too much information!

However, if you follow these seven simple rules you can be interesting, personable and a successful marketer on Twitter.

Share your discoveries

Some of my favorite people on Twitter are those who regularly share interesting links. They may be links to new tools, links to interesting videos or links to great blog posts. When I see their tweets I know the link is worth clicking because it will give me information I didn’t have before. And the best part, I didn’t have to go looking for it, it came to me.

Get personal

Have you ever been to a networking meeting and met a guy who only talked about his business? He told you about his products, how much they cost and is Tuesday a good time for the two of you to discuss making a purchase. Yeah. I hated him too.

The problem was he didn’t give you a chance to get to know him as a person first. We all like to do business with those we know, like and trust. Twitter gives people the chance to get to know you, if you take the time to get personal.

And while you shouldn’t talk about your bodily functions, you can talk about things going on in your personal life. It gives people a chance to relate to you as a real person, particularly if they have experienced the same thing.

So go ahead and talk about mowing the lawn, walking your dog or how much you loved the Star Trek movie. You never know who might share the same interests or experiences.

Start conversations

The real power of Twitter is holding conversations with your tribe. When someone says something interesting, comment on it by using the @ sign in front of their Twitter name. This lets them know your comments are directed to them personally. Just remember that @replies are public, so act accordingly.

Share the love

From time to time someone you are following will say something particularly interesting that you want to share with your followers. Or they may have passed along a link to a video you really enjoyed. This is called a Retweet. When you put an RT in front of their message and resend it to your list you are expanding the conversation. Your followers get to read this great Tweet, are introduced to a new person and the originator of the Tweet knows you appreciated what they had to say. Retweeting puts the social into Twitter.

Show off your expertise

If you write a new blog post, publish a video or are interviewed in a podcast Tweet about it. If the material you are producing is interesting and helpful to your audience, they’ll appreciate being kept informed.

Quote me on that

People love humorous or inspirational quotes. Whether you get them from a book of quotations, a quotations website or from your daily reading, sending your favorite quotes in a Tweet is an easy way to share with your followers.

Now you can market

Once you’ve done all these other things on Twitter, then you can start marketing. Introduce a new product, send a link to your sales page, invite people to join your email list, offer a free tool. In general the rule is to send four or five social messages for every one promotional message. If you’re just starting out, you might make it ten social to one promotional until everyone has a chance to get to know you.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Have I missed any ways to use Twitter? Leave a comment and share how you are using it.

Table of contents for Using Google to Market Your Business

1. Using Google to Market Your Business
2. Using Google to Market Your Business Part 2: Google Analytics
3. Using Google to Market Your Business Part 4: Google Keyword tool
4. Using Google to Market Your Business Part 3: YouTube

YouTube is now owned by Google so this is yet another way to use Google as a marketing vehicle. With over 100 million U.S. viewers of YouTube (never mind the rest of the world) as of January 2009, clearly YouTube is a way to reach a large number of people.

Why should you add YouTube videos to your marketing plan?

SEO

First, search engines are starting to rank video higher than longer articles and blog posts. If you’ve used good keywords in your title and meta tags, your video is more likely to get found by Google and other search engines. Additionally, since you can include a link to your own website, you can further increase the ranking of your site by adding videos to YouTube.

More Clicks

Our eyes naturally go to photos. If your video shows up in a search someone does on Google, the thumbnail of your video is more likely to catch their eye and get clicked than a text only result. This means more traffic for you.

Link Bait

Good videos are “link bait”. YouTube automatically includes a link for views to use to add to their website. If you provide interesting or useful content it is more likely someone will add your video to their website, increasing the number of people who see and hear your message.

You’ll be cutting edge

Even though people are moving to YouTube in droves, the majority of small businesses haven’t tried it yet. If you start using video online today, there’s a good chance you’ll be one of the first ones in your industry to do so. You’ll be seen as cutting edge or just reach people your non-YouTube competitors don’t.

Works well with other social media sites

Social media sites like Facebook are designed to work with YouTube. You can easily and quickly import your YouTube videos and get double duty. Even if someone has never used YouTube before, they can still watch your content.

The rule of seven

YouTube was made for the Rule of Seven. I’ve said it before: people like to do business with those they know, like and trust. And getting to know, like and trust you takes time – at least seven contacts with your marketing message. Video is a great way to let people get to know you: they can see your face and hear your voice. You’re no longer an anonymous entity online but a living, breathing person. If you combine that with interesting and helpful information, video can speed up the process of getting people to feel comfortable enough with you to be willing to open their wallets and purchase your products or services.

Tips for creating a good video

I’m not a videographer so I’m not going to give you tips on how to actually use a video camera. If you need help there, hire someone or find a teenager who knows what she’s doing.

However, there are some tips I can give you to get better results.

1. It doesn’t have to be perfect. While you don’t what to look completely unprofessional, if your video is too polished viewers may feel like they’re viewing a commercial. Sometimes a slightly homemade quality to the video can make your message more authentic.
2. The average YouTube viewer spends 2.5 to 3 minutes per video. Keep your video in that range and you’ll likely get more viewers.
3. Dress professionally. I know I said a homemade quality may sound authentic but that doesn’t mean I think you should create your videos in your pajamas. Unless your personal and business brand is very quirky, dress how you would if you were meeting clients. Clean up your office – if that’s where you’re shooting.
4. Provide good, useful content. People don’t want a sales pitch. The best format is to talk about a problem your customers have and give them tips on how to solve it.
5. Don’t forget a subtle sales pitch. If you’ve given useful information, end your video with a soft sell. Include your website address and some sort of call to action – what do you want the viewer to do next. An ideal call to action is send them to a place on your website where they can get more information.

If you haven’t started using video yet, now might be the time to give it a try. Go to YouTube, see how others are viewing the site, get out your video camera and give it a try.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Are you using video and YouTube to market your business? Let us know how it works by leaving a comment. Also, if you know of businesses that are doing a good job with video, leave us links to the best online videos.

Bed & breakfast owner Marsha Barrow is a prime example of this. By recognizing a trend in the market and taking action she made an important impact on her bottom line.

It first started with a gut feeling. As a Canadian Marsha felt that she needed to remember Canada is a bilingual country: both French and English. It was probably this feeling that made Marsha pay attention to tourism statistics showing an increase in visitors to Canada from France. In spite of the fact that overall overseas visitors are down, visitors from France are increasing.

Around the same time, a couple from France who were teaching in Toronto came to stay at the Butchart Estate. This caused Marsha to consider ways to purposely encourage French visitors to come to her B & B. She didn’t have far to look. A national B & B association she belongs to offers translation services to members. For only $100 members can easily have their website information translated into French or a number of other languages.

Since having her website translated, Marsha has had a number of guests from France, clearly making the investment worthwhile. Even better, one of these guests enjoyed her stay so much she wrote a review for one of France’s top travel guides. It’s looking like Marsha can expect even more French visitors in the future. Now all she needs to do is brush up on her high school French so she has an easier time conversing with them.

The key is to keep abreast of what’s happening in your industry. Read government statistics, join an industry association and keep aware of what’s happening in the market. When you notice a trend, take a moment to ask yourself how you can take advantage of it. It might truly be as simple as paying $100 to get your website translated.

Andrea J. Stenberg

How do you keep up to date on your industry? Are there things you’ve done to take advantage of trends? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.

I’m this week’s host and as always, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to introduce you to some fabulous boomer bloggers. Please take a look at the excerpts below and click on the links. I think you’ll find each of these writers has something interesting to say.

Baby Boomer helicopter parents are now counting on a productive young workforce to help fund retirement and health care.  Instead, they continue to fund their adult children who are unemployed or risk getting tracked into jobs that don’t pay very well.

If you’re up for a little Baby Boomer reminiscing, check out Hole In The Donut’s post about Muscle Car City in Punta Gorda, Florida, a private collection of more than 200 classic cars that recently opened to the public.

The Midlife Crisis Queen, Laura Lee is thrilled with a new phrase she heard: “Failing upward.”
Turns out she’s been doing it for years, and it’s working for her!

The Boomer Chronicles asks, “Have you ever revisited the town or city where you were born?”

At Writing Without Periods, Mary learns that even at midlife we can still learn a lot from the older generation. Find out what “First Class Denny” taught her on their Sunday drive at  http://www.menopausemusing.com/2009/10/mary-first-class-danny.html

Over at Contemporary Retirement, Ann advises you to get the Kleenex ready for a post entitled, How to say goodbye when someone you love is dying.

Next to LOVE, the most precious gift we have is our LABOR.  Don’t put away your hankies!  Watch speech at Vaboomer.com: http://tinyurl.com/labor-service

Single payer, public option, 5 bills into one…Janet at Gen Plus gives her American/Canadian take on last week’s day in healthcare history.

David Letterman is not alone. According to Newsweek, office affairs are on the rise. Read about it at LifeTwo.

And finally, here’s an oldie but a goodie from the Baby Boomer Entrepreneur: If you’re using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or any of the social media sites, What Does Your Social Media Photograph Say About You?

Enjoy!

Andrea J. Stenberg