TrevorNelDailyOnline

Appearances are everything!

Do you want to look solid and stable, or new and exciting?

It’s all in the image you convey in your office decor and written materials.

This is where Wendy excels. From laying out the contents of your letter to selecting the right colours for your image, this section is essential reading for every business-person.

Listen to this classic example: “The location of your wording and graphics is important. Place them on the right side of the front cover of your corporate brochure and you’re seen as powerful and long-lasting. Put the same wording or graphics on the left side and you’re seen as young, snappy and fresh”.

See what I mean? She’s hot!

More tomorrow:

Can you answer a simple question for your new-business prospects?

In one sentence... what do you do?

What will your product or service do for the buyer?

Wendy offers another great idea to help you work this one out.

She says to... “Imagine that you have paid for a huge highway sign at the cost of a million dollars a day. Passing motorists have one second to see your message and come and buy because of it. Now write (your message) to make that million dollars work for you”.

To enhance the value of the exercise she recommends a three-step process in finding that critical “single-minded” proposition:

Ask your clients how they benefit from your business; link the common theme as a tag-line to your company name; and test the tag-line with clients and non-clients. “If it makes sense to them, you then use it in all types of written communication”.

Wendy gives her example of a good “single-minded” proposition as being the bill-board message by an office equipment supplier which reads... “Minolta. We understand offices”.

More tomorrow:

Once you have identified who your priority new-business prospects are then you can apply Wendy’s stunning business secret - “...keep in touch regularly and relentlessly within ninety days - more often if you wish, but never let ninety days go by without contact - which is approximately sixty working days”.

I love it! It makes fantastic sense and none of your competitors will be doing it. I am absolutely convinced you will stand out as an exceptional entrepreneur with this system.

For example, let’s say you have 180 new-business prospects that you are going to contact in sixty working days. That makes just 3 new contact calls per day. It’s just so simple!

But... what if when you phone they’re not in? Don’t fret!

Wendy’s simple solution is to send a “... greeting card, a letter, a relevant PR piece or your brochure and a note saying you will be in touch again within three (or two or one) months. And do it!”

Your new prospects will love the special attention! No one else does it, so you will be very different.

More tomorrow:

The very best new-business prospects should match the profiles of your “existing best clients and the best clients of your competition”.

Wendy has designed an excellent Commonality Survey to help you identify the clues you can get from your current clients that will help you identify new prospects with similar needs.

She advises that you should... “constantly research your clients, customers, and new prospects for their needs, and meet those needs before your competitors do”. Very similar to my own first simple secret of business - find out what people want or need and give it to them at an excellent price.

Two gems I enjoyed from this section were : “The prospects that are nearest you can be the richest mine of your life”, and that, if you are an established business, you should perhaps... “see how your existing products can be modified to meet a market need, rather than create totally new products for which you have no known reputation”.

More tomorrow:

Every business succeeds or fails on its ability to generate new sales prospects.

Wendy describes an exciting process of gently nudging new prospects into doing business with you.

She points out that building new business is much like developing relationships in our private lives.

With someone you love, perhaps a family member... “We might send them a magazine cutting. Meet them at an airport. Buy them a book we found of value. Send a postcard. Remember their birthday. Invite them to our Christmas or New Year party. Without quite knowing how, we have stayed in touch because it is easy, pleasant, and rewarding. You need do no more in your nudging of prospects”.

With this system you don’t have to worry about getting a “no” because your prospects really mean “not now”. When they are ready you’ll get the business because they know you are always there when they need you.

But, the trick lies in finding enough good new prospectsI

More Tomorrow:

Say’s Wendy: “You must have a set of goals with actions and costs for the future, a strategic plan by which to guide your business and promotional plans for your individual product or service”.

Like myself, Wendy has a high regard for Stephen Covey’s simple principle... “Begin with the end in mind”.

Her advice is for you to project yourself into your personal vision of the future. At least... to three years from today. Even better, if you project your vision through to five, ten, and even fifteen years.

How do you want your business to look at this future date?

What do you want to have achieved during this chosen period of time?

Ask yourself: What will it cost and what will it take? Because... it IS going to to take time, money and effort to achieve your dreams.

So, plan you must!

In establishing a business plan, Wendy adopts one of my favourite and proven techniques - simple SWOT analysis.

In order to lay a foundation for the future it is imperative to analyse where your business currently stands. SWOT analysis allows you to identify your key business Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Wendy offers a very practical guideline template in her book which any business-person can follow. Although, in my experience, I must add that the exercise is better conducted with an outside facilitator who is not emotionally tied to the business.

Once you have a clear vision of where you want to go in the future, and absolute clarity of where you are today, you can set about strategising your overall Business Plan, your specific Marketing Plan, and your Personal Plan.

Wendy does a great job here with some more excellent analysis templates for you to follow.

You will be led into writing down clear goals with specific time frames for achievement.

You will develop action plans to meet those goals and you will learn to budget for estimated costs.

Says Wendy, “I have found one unchanging rule: whatever budget you set, it always cost twice as much”. This is true experience talking.

Another comment I enjoyed in this section is... “Most of all, it doesn’t matter what you do so long as you get out there and do something”.

More tomorrow:

Thought I'd share another book review offering timeless wisdom. First published October 1995. Review update by Trevor Nel – 24 November 2000
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One of my greatest joys in life is meeting with those few people who truly practice what they preach.

And... this week I was treated to another of those special occasions with a visit from Wendy Evans - internationally renowned marketing strategist, professional speaker and author of How To Get New Business In 90 Days.... and keep it forever!

Our 30 minute informal introductory meeting easily stretched into a two-hour mutual admiration session, as we began to realise that we had each approached our business strategising and consulting from a very similar foundation of admired Role-Models, reading material, and practical business experience.

Which is why I had absolutely no difficulty in flying through her very easy-to-read publication and transcribe her simple pearls of wisdom for you to enjoy and apply in your own life and business.

Wendy Evans came to write her wonderful book from a desire to fully understand why she had been so successful in her sales and marketing promotions for high-profile corporate clients such as Proctor and Gamble, British Airways, Saatchi & Saatchi, Johnson & Johnson, and Thomas Cook.

For 15 years, Wendy had honed her techniques to perfection, and actually proved that they could work all over the world, with successful campaigns in Australia, Hong Kong, London, New York, Washington and South Africa.

She discovered and perfected just 12 simple steps to marketing success that, if applied consistently, could double or triple your sales through adopting a specific on-going strategy to prospect for new-business in whatever industry you’re in.

During her travels, she learnt invaluable lessons from her mentors which she shares as one-liners in her introduction. Juicy tidbits such as... “It’s not what you think the product is; it is how the buyer, the person who parts with hard-earned money, really benefits from it”.

And, a warning to impatient entrepreneurs and marketing managers... “The fact is, however, that the outside world can - and often does - take three to five years to notice that bright new product or service, assuming that there are enough funds to promote and advertise for that period”.

When I read practical insights like this, I know I have found someone that really knows the real world of business.

So many entrepreneurs and corporations never, ever, make it because they do not have the ability to hang in there!

Wendy’s practical experience continues to shine through as she warns of the importance of telephone skills. “A great deal of new business involves the telephone”.

And she has learnt that you “never sell on the first phone call... only open up the opportunity of a meeting”.

One of her mentors taught her the valuable lesson that persistence pays... “...if you make three times more new-business calls than your competitors, you are four times more successful”.

And from Saatchi’s she learnt that “the more noise you make, the more attention you get”.

That’s just her introduction... can you see why I am excited about this book?

So, let’s move on to discuss her 12 simple secrets for success in your business.

More tomorrow:

We're back... after a refreshing break... but, what a way to enter a new year year, huh? I thought 9/11 was something that could not beaten for sheer scale of graphic tragedy... and here we see over 150 000 people dead and probably many more to perish from injuries and trauma resulting from this Tsunami.

It is two weeks later and we are starting to catch amateur video evidence of the incredible weight of water that plowed rapidly like a fluid glacier through the streets of cities, towns and villages in east Asia. Anyone caught in the mess of debris collected by this rush of muddy water had little chance of survival. That's clear from the images.

What message do we take from this? For me, it is to be grateful for what we have and where we live and to remember the intense suffering of others whenever we feel a little hard done by. Our prayers go to all who suffer in such tragedies... this one of biblical proportions.