Dennis Salazar is the founder and president of Salazar Packaging, Inc. He recently invented and introduced a new industrial product, the Globe Guard® Reusable Box. If you’ve ever tried, you know how difficult rolling out a new product is. Still, innovation is a phenomenal way for a small firm to differentiate itself and penetrate new markets. Here, Dennis shares some of his experiences, which should be inspirational and helpful for entrepreneurs who are contemplating bringing something new to market. (Salazar Packaging is a Word Sell client.) This interview is part of a series on Innovation in Small Business.

Dennis Salazar

Two Boxes in One

What lessons did you learn about product innovation through your Reusable Box experience? You can never go wrong by listening to your customers and developing a solution to their needs. We also learned the patent filing process can be very detailed and expensive. There is no substitute for experience so it is extremely important to identify resources you can trust and not hesitate to utilize a non-disclosure agreement even in preliminary conversations but definitely before you show too many of your cards. If fences make for good neighbors, NDA’s create good business relationships.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs and small companies about rolling out a new product? Take time to understand the market and the process. Who would the product appeal to and why would it appeal to them? In today’s economy, that should be immediately followed by how can we make the product better and less expensive? Friends and allies are invaluable because everyone knows someone so once your product is safely patented, make sure you tell everyone about it. Participate and use web based social networks but they will never replace people you can depend on to be eager to contribute to your success.

About Salazar Packaging
Headquartered near Chicago, IL, Salazar Packaging is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) specializing in packaging design and development, sustainable packaging products and services, and automation of high volume packaging operations. It represents leading industry manufacturers including Bemis Clysar® shrink film, Autobag® automatic bagging systems, Rennco® vertical packaging equipment, and its own line of eco friendly Globe Guard® packaging products.

You Can Walk Right By a Colorful Character

I knew a salesman, a rather hefty fellow, whose breakfasts consisted of pancakes smothered in butter, syrup, and grape jelly. He worked ten-hour days into his eighties.

Yogi Berra, a long retired catcher for the New York Yankees, had color to spare. He said things like …

• “Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.”
• “If people don’t want to come out to the ball park, nobody’s gonna stop ‘em.”
• “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”

Surrealist painter Salvador Dali, pictured above, was especially colorful (the upturned waxed mustache probably gave that away). He wore a cape. When signing autographs, he would keep the pens. He also knew how to paint colorful characters.

Some people don’t project color evenly. One on one, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson was a cajoling and commanding presence with a coarse sense of humor, able to swing any back room political deal. On televised speeches, Johnson came off like a cardboard box.

Another salesman I knew was trying to sell 3M tape to a purchasing agent at a metal fabricating shop. To judge how sticky the tape was, the purchasing agent slapped a long piece of it on his very hairy forearm and ripped it off. I don’t remember if the sale was made, but I’ll never forget the customer. The tape, by the way, was extremely sticky.

The quintessential colorful character on TV was Kramer. I submit my proof:

Who’s colorful in your life?

A B2B Twitter Presence Should Balance Experimentation with Discipline

A Twitter presence can be a valuable asset for a b2b firm – or a monumental waste of time. Too often, firms go into Twitter with the attitude, Let’s give it a try and see what happens. I’m all for experimentation, but for Twitter and other social media platforms, two things are likely to happen with this approach. You’ll wind up with months of aimless conversation and nothing to show for it, or worse, undercutting your brand by communicating in ways that are off putting to social media participants.

First Question – Are We Using Twitter to Engage or Inform?

In my mind, this is the starting point for b2b activity on Twitter. Is your purpose to push content to your target audience, or do you want to have conversations with your audience and try to build relationships? Either strategy is executable, and both can succeed. Each takes a completely different approach.

The Informational Twitter Strategy

Twitter for B2B Can Look Like This

In terms of resource allocation, the good news is, an informational Twitter strategy can be outsourced. You don’t need a staffer sitting in front of a monitor all day playing around on social media sites (for some execs, the ultimate nightmare scenario). I’m doing this type of twittering for companies, and it works well. I can pinpoint the audience and make connections. I can broadcast tweets with optimized content and get people to find and retweet them.

The bad news for an informational Twitter strategy – you need valuable, meaningful content to tweet about! You need real news, real sales promotions, real insights, and attention getting angles. In stark contrast to conventional wisdom, social media is not Seinfeld. Twitter is not a show about nothing. Tweets have to be about something, or people will pass you by in a heartbeat. There’s too much noise in interactive media for empty tweets to garner even a sliver of an audience. Think of this strategy as being the condensed version of The Wall Street Journal.

Metrics. How will you judge your success? For starters, track Twitter referrals to your websites, and monitor how often your tweets are retweeted – and by whom. You should also set up a Twitter landing page for your main site, and use it to direct visitors along the relationship path you want them to take. Ultimately, you want your Twitter community to do something – request information, arrange a sales meeting, order a product, etc. Your web presence must be shaped accordingly.

The Conversational Twitter Strategy

Twitter for B2B Can Look Like This

Resource allocation. To make a conversational Twitter strategy succeed, your firm needs internal support. Your Twitter identity must have a personal face, because people want to talk with a someone, not a company name. When they come to your Twitter profile page, they want to see a human being, not a corporate logo. Conversations are most effective when held in real time, so the company’s Twitter representative should be available for engagement pretty much all the time, and actively tweeting at regular, specific times. This type of tweeting can be outsourced, but doing so requires a close relationship with the agency doing the work.

With a conversational strategy, it’s useful to combine those serious business-focus tweets with observations about the weather and what was cooked for dinner last night. And while this gives many execs heartburn, it shouldn’t. Relationships with million dollar customers often begin at a cocktail party over stuffed mushrooms and a conversation about yesterday’s baseball game. Twitter is no different. People build relationships in social media just as they do everywhere else.

Metrics for conversational tweeting follow the same guidelines as informational tweeting, but with a little more depth. I’d want to pay close attention to new inbound links, and determine if they are connected to Twitter relationships. Brand monitoring – looking for mentions of your firm or products on the web – becomes more important, since more effort is going into your Twitter program. It may also be useful to add Twitter to your lead tracking on contact forms.

Remember that Twitter is not a magic bullet. It takes time for a Twitter presence to take hold, and trends are more important than raw numbers for the first several months. Don’t be concerned if you don’t have a single brand evangelist after a few weeks. If someone jumps on your bandwagon that quickly, it’s probably not the kind of evangelist you want anyway.

In an upcoming post, I’ll talk about a checklist for getting started with a b2b Twitter program.
___________________

Chicago based SEO copywriting, blog consulting, and content marketing.

Brad Clemmons is my friend, and owner of Apex Pumping Equipment. Brad’s firm sells industrial pumps, fire pumps, water purification systems, and related services. While some might say this is a rather ordinary business, Brad makes it extraordinary by virtue of his enthusiasm, imagination, and vision. He was nice enough to answer a few questions for me about how he leads his company, and I think his responses speak volumes about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. (This interview is part of a series, Innovation in Small Business.)

You seem to be doing better than most in your industry during this recession – what do you attribute that to? Almighty God! We are also trying not to hunker down and continue our sales and marketing efforts. We emphasize that we must be positive but at the same time realistic. Couple this concept with exceptional products and you have a recipe for continued success.

What’s your philosophy of doing business? We stress with each other to listen carefully to what the customer says and then translate that into a solution.

Brad Clemmons

I like how you’ve explored new markets with new products to fight through a slow economy. Can you tell us about your new activity in Central and South America? Selling into Latin America is new for us and it in fact grew out of one of our staff educating others in our industry and being invited to do the same in Latin America. We saw opportunity, examined it and it made sense for our business. One of our TEAM speaks fluent Spanish and is Hispanic. Again couple that with his ability, expertise and knowledge along with new and innovative products and the people of Latin America are willing to listen tentatively. There is business there as there is here you just need the drive and desire to pursue it and have the right TEAM members doing it.

“Now more than ever is the time to get in front of your customers and give them hope.” Brad Clemmons

Pump Up Your Business

Where do you see your business going over the next two or three years? We will continue to search for customers that are struggling with something related to our business and provide opportunity and solutions for there challenges.

Today our relationship with our customer more then ever is needed. We believe that we must bring new and innovative products and services and place them in front of our customers, most of whom then turn around and sell these products or services to their customers. The companies that see these products as opportunity and tear down, or perhaps a better way to say it is climb over, the negative walls that surround us today, will and do find sales and business they did not know existed. It is APEX’s challenge to again educate and provide the products necessary to keep not only our business but the business of our customer partners and we can’t forget our supplier partners going as strong as possible.

Encourage new ideas and thoughts! Let the creative juices of your TEAM flow. As a leader if you have pointed them in the right direction you will be surprised and pleased with what they come up with and never forget that the big guy upstairs is driving the bus!
__________________________

About Apex Pumping Equipment
Founded in 1996 on the premise of conducting business in an honest, fair, dedicated and unique way, APEX has grown from its founder Brad Clemmons to a small business with 17 team members. Our 4000 sq. ft. sales and service facility is located in Sugar Grove, Illinois. Since 1996, APEX represents ITT A-C Fire Pumps & Packages, Tank Connection, MicBlast, TigerFlow, and Containment Solutions to name a few. We presently have five full-time service trucks and offer 24-hour emergency service for fire pumps, motors, engines and controllers.

Kay Plantes is a brilliant strategic thinker and writer, published author, consultant, speaker, entrepreneur, and on top of that, a genuinely nice human being. I’ve gotten to know Kay over the last couple years helping her launch her blog. Thank you, Kay, for sharing your ideas with us today. Note: This is the first in a series on Innovation in Small Business.

Kay Plantes

Here are my top 5 ideas for planning and doing as a small business owner, learned the hard way (as all good lessons are) over 20 years. During this time, my business transformed from local to national and from consulting to include being an author, columnist and public speaker.

Journal.

Whether you spend time every morning, time each Sunday or once a month, spend time with a blank sheet of paper and favorite pen or pencil reflecting on your life. Just write. Don’t judge. Don’t correct grammar mistakes. Just write for 20 minutes. Over time, you will discover a deeper vision for your life and solutions to barriers that keep life from being as rich as it can be. With every journal entry identify one thing for which you are thankful. Journaling is powerful, as it requires reflection, something busy lives often lack.

Have a vision and don’t be afraid to voice it.

In five years, what do you want to say about your business and how it fits into your life? How do you want customers/clients to describe it? What’s different and the same as today? My vision included becoming a writer. With this vision I suggested to an association client that I write a newsletter for its members. Sharing my vision with two opened doors to two other people, meetings which led to the two columns I write. A vision is powerful because it opens our eyes to opportunities you might otherwise miss.

Turn your vision into a set of annual goals about which you are excited.

Without a tool to separate the important from the other “should do” items, we can spend all our time on activities with the least payback to us. The columns in my to-do list are important goals for the year. I then list key to do’s in each column with one final column for “other” i.e., the to-dos that do not align with a major goal. From this master to-do list I choose priorities for the day/week. It’s amazing how this organizing plan focuses me on the right stuff and how I drift when I stop using this system. (As a creative I rebel against structure.) Without structure, the urgent always drives out the important.

Set aside a time and place to do the work of change.

I created a second office for my writing. I also scheduled time each week in my calendar for my writing. (And I should do the same for by blog by the by.) I am absolutely convinced that without a separate space and without committed time, my writing vision would still be an aspiration. Dreams without structure remain dreams.

Celebrate success and discuss barriers with a caring advisor(s).

It’s hard to be a business owner. It takes a tribe to thrive. Find advisors and confidants who respect you, will empathize and have good insights to offer. Talk with them about the performance of your business vis a vis your vision and annual goals. Listen to their advice. Advisors help you reframe situations and see the larger implications of successes. With the reframing come even better opportunities.

Take time to plan and change. If you’re not creating the changes you want in your business and life then who and what is shaping your future?
_____________________________________

Kay Plantes is a business strategy consultant, author, MIT-trained economist and public speaker. Her firm, Plantes Company, LLC helps leaders make better strategy and execution decisions, faster. Her book Beyond Price: Differentiate Your Company in Ways that Really Matter (Greenleaf Book Group, 2009) and Business Model Innovation Blog give leaders a road map to building a one-of-a-kind business that leaves the pack behind. Her book can help your company:

1. Understand why price has become so important and how you can escape pricing pressures
2. Conduct a far more insightful strategic assessment of your business
3. (If you have employees) understand leaders’ unique role and what happens when leaders fail to do the work only they can do
4. Redefine what your business is all about in order to be more competitive and surface new growth opportunities
5. Build the business you want to run

Look before You Leap into B2B SEO

• SEO is not a be-all-end-all.
• It is not a miracle cure for a sick web presence.
• It is not a starting point for marketing.
• It is not a stand alone marketing activity that can be divorced from other marketing and sales functions.

B2B companies sometimes make the mistake of rushing into SEO full throttle before they’re ready. This is not as bad as ignoring SEO, but still bad. Here are 10 signs you have more prep work to do before you begin optimizing in earnest.

B2B SEO Preparation Points

1. You don’t monitor your web stats.
2. You don’t know what search terms people are using to find your site now.
3. You don’t have any idea what search terms you’d like to be found for.
4. You don’t have a budget for marketing.
5. You don’t have a budget for SEO.
6. You don’t have anyone on staff clearly responsible for search marketing.
7. Your website doesn’t have a clear purpose.
8. Your website doesn’t have at least one clear and compelling call to action.
9. Your website is hopelessly out of date in terms of content, design, and/or programming.
10. Your main rationale for diving into SEO is that all your competitors are doing it.

I’m sure I’ve missed plenty, but this list is a good start. In future posts, I’ll go into detail on why each of these 10 SEO preparation points is vital.
___________________
Chicago based SEO copywriting, blog consulting, and content marketing.

Two Heads Are Better than One, and I Can Prove It

Case Study – How Blogging Expands Knowledge and Solves Business Problems

Not long ago I wrote a post called How to Customize Title Tags in WordPress. It included this bit of information -

In the post you’re reading now, the headline is How to Customize Title Tags in Wordpress. The title tag – look at your browser tab or the top of your browser – is Custom Title Tags in Wordpress | Word Sell Inc .

So imagine my surprise when I got this comment from my new best friend, Amber …

Great info. But the title in my web browser is the same title of your posting, How to customize title tags in Wordpress. Not your title tag: Custom Title Tags in Wordpress | Word Sell Inc. I’m having the same problem. My wordpress SEO isn’t over-riding the title that comes up by default. I have the All in one SEO pack installed as well but have been using the SEO interface that come with wordpress. I wonder if this is causing the problem. Thanks for any comments – Ill let you know if I come across anything

And then she comes back a few minutes later with this -

Me again! After some testing I think I found the problem. Basically, if you have installed the All In One SEO pack on your Wordpress blog, you HAVE to use it. If you have this plugin and you use the SEO interface that comes with Wordpress it won’t be recognized. I changed the Title Tag in the wordpress SEO – nothing. I entered it on the All in one SEO pack – BAM it changed. SEO is too important take chances on – Ill be using the plug-in from now on.

Don't Go It Alone

It’s an example of how blog conversations have genuine business value. This give and take of information, this willingness to share and help out, makes us better at whatever we do. I can’t put an ROI to what happened here, but as far as I’m concerned, the value is obvious and indisputable. Thanks, Amber.

WordPress Side Note. Piling on plugins can have unintended consequences, especially if the time comes for deactivating them. Another example: Apture. I recently deactived it, and all those image embeds and links look like hell. I knew this would happen, but in other cases, like the Amber loophole, I was caught by surprise. Watch out for loopholes.
___________________

Chicago based SEO copywriting, blog consulting services, and content marketing.

Are you talking to me?

Breathe Life into Your Business by Putting Life in Your Website

Too many b2b websites are stiff as cardboard. But whether your site is of the basic “billboard” variety or a full blown e-commerce site, customers want more than the traditional Big Three – Service, Quality, and Price. Remember Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver? Today’s online customer asks the same question he did.

Are you talking to me?

Are you to talking to your customers? Or … are you talking at them? If your web presence is sterile, you will find it ever more challenging to attract new customers and sustain relationships with existing ones.

As competitors add blogs and social media to their online marketing mix, you will appear two dimensional by comparison. Given the choice, people will take three dimensional every time.

Equally damaging, a two dimensional web presence – one that lacks a blog and a newsroom and editorial content – will suffer seriously on the SEO front. As your firm loses ground to competitors with real customers, you will lose as much or more ground with search engine spiders – the little bugs that guide new visitors to your site when they’re searching for the stuff you sell.

Can you afford that?
___________________

Chicago based SEO copywriting, blog consulting services, and content marketing.

If You're Going to Be a Social Media Bear, Be a Grizzly

Now, Google Buzz is upon us. My Gmail inbox is overflowing with comments, links, conversations, recommendations, and observations. All great stuff … but is it too much of a good thing? (Read this for a quick, insightful, high altitude assessment of Google Buzz.)

Today, I feel obligated to promote content on several social media platforms. There are tools that make this relatively easy, but still … doesn’t it seem absurd to throw out a link to one interesting blog post on five or six networks? To be efficient by using social media aggregating tools, your communication becomes less personal. To be personally engaged by conversing on multiple platforms, you run out of hours in the day. Something has to give.

Will social media become another mass marketing outlet?

Many bloggers have noticed a decline in comments and real communication on their blogs. Much of it has drifted over to Twitter or Facebook. But lately I’ve noticed people dropping off of Twitter. They may still be on Twitter, but not with the same gusto. I probably fall in that category as well.

In any business endeavor, we run the risk of spreading ourselves too thin, of losing intensity. This is dangerous in marketing, and particularly so in social media marketing, where passion is what makes it so effective in the first place. How do we cope with the noise, the saturation, the compulsion to engage on so many platforms? I can think of a few things, and I sure would like to know what you think.

Engage with purpose. A friend of mine likes to say, if you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly. If you feel yourself going through the motions, cut back, reevaluate, rejuvenate.
Engage strategically. The time for experimentation with reckless abandon has passed in social media. Experimentation is still good and necessary, but pick your spots. Have a reason to jump into the next big thing.
Resist the temptation to be a first adapter everywhere. Sometimes you have to let the other guy or gal be the pioneer. I missed the Google Wave wave, and that’s OK. Life goes on.
Be willing to walk away. Pulling the plug on a blog or a Facebook Page feels like a whopping failure. It really does. And the more of ourselves we pour into our work, the worse it feels. But business is business and you have to cut your losses before they cut you. One of the downsides of social media engagement is it makes exit strategies – and executing them – tough. But successful business people always have a willingness to walk away.
___________________

Chicago based SEO copywriting, blog consulting, and content marketing.

Is This the Beginning of the End, or the End of the Beginning?

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Sir Winston Churchill, Speech, November 1942.

We don’t have anything looming as large as the outcome of World War II, I hope, but nonetheless, reading the economic tea leaves presents quite a challenge these days.

Do you think business is getting better, worse, or languishing in the same rut we’ve been stuck in?
___________________
Chicago based SEO copywriting, blog consulting, and content marketing.