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More information on the event program:newyork.brno.cz

Or click here to view a PDF of the Online Invitation.

RSVP
Attendance is free of charge but your reservation is requested as places are limited. You can either confirm your attendance via e-mail (newyork@embassy.mzv.cz) or you can fill in the registration form on newyork.brno.cz/registration.

Presentation of the City of Brno will be held under the auspices of the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, the Czech Ambassador to the U.S., the Mayor of the City of Brno, the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic and is organized in co-operation with the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic and the Czech Center New York.

Melea Seward, a good friend and social media guru, said something that really made me stop dead in my tracks.

She said “everyone is so worried about getting a million followers on Twitter, what about the people that are right around them? They get ignored.”

Melea’s right. It was an OMG moment.

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That sparked an idea. What if we could get a few people together to blog about each other’s businesses? What if by planting posts on high traffic websites about other people’s work and products, we created backlinks to their site?

What if we became advocates for one another?

That would create backlinks and elevate our brands in the mind of our audience. Since these are friends, they would know us really well. We’d be helping each other. We’d also be helping the world get to know these wonderful businesses hiding in the Bermuda Triangle of cyberspace.

All of us have people around us who already know us and believe in what we’re doing. When it comes to marketing tips for small businesses, the key to a successful blog party is to start with an audience that knows and trusts you.

Step 1: Write Down Your Inner Circle Network

Look at your network; family, friends, colleagues, college or school mates. Look at your suppliers, instructors, service providers. Now look at the key people in these categories who know you super well, love your products, talent or service. These might be the people in your first degree on LinkedIn.

Step 2: Identify Four People in Your Inner Circle in Non-Competing Businesses.

These are people who are trying to grow THEIR audience and need help too. They should be people who don’t compete directly with you or with one another. In order for this marketing tip for small businesses to work, it should be people who are comfortable with the web and basic social media.

Step 3: Choose a date and two hours when those four people and you are available to meet at a single location.

Step 4: At least a week before, the blog party host should create a program for the two hours.

First, you must have great munchies and great coffee present. It’s motivating and inspiring!

Step 5: The program should include: which websites will be promoted in the time you have together. The program should also include five high-value websites in the niche where the site owner wants his/ her URL to show up.

This directs the efforts of the other members. Check www.alexa.com to find sites in your niche that have great traffic. Also check to see if the sites are “no-follow”. It’s better to plant a brand on a “follow” site to start. My humble opinion.

Step 6: On the date set, be prepared to write at least two blog posts on high traffic sites for each of the other members. They in turn will do the same for you. Two hours is 120 minutes. If you’re posting 2 comments per other person (four), that’s a total of 8 comments in two hours.

That’s one comment every fifteen minutes. You can do that!

At the end of two hours, you’ll have 8 backlinks to your website. Isn’t that amazing! It might take you weeks to do that on your own otherwise.

Think about it. If you did this twice a month, you’d have sixteen backlinks a month. That’s 192 backlinks in a year. High quality backlinks from people who know how to speak about you. All these lovely things spoken about your business would be coming from third parties, not you. That matters.

The idea here is not to hype or hard sell. It’s to engage an audience with helpful ideas, products and services that can help them relieve pain or find their passion. Now, you’re not slogging it out on your own.

This is called leveraging relationships.

A Blog Party is a mini-swarm strategy.

It’s like crowd sourcing, except backwards!

Instead of “from many points to one point”.

It’s “from four points to many points.”

And the group you’re working with knows each other.

And trusts each other.

And wants to be incredibly helpful.

Marketing tips for small businesses is easy and fun if you know how. We have a lot more ideas for you, so stay tuned. We haven’t even hit our stride yet!
Dawn Fotopulos is the founder of BestSmallBizHelp.com, a certified Kauffman Fast Trac facilitator and a successful entrepreneur who has launched over 80 different businesses. Learn more about small business training and resources at bestsmallbizhelp.com.

As the economy slowly recovers, companies are beginning to hire again.  Unemployment is still high and many job applicants have been unemployed for many months. Since companies have not had robust hiring initiatives, their internal hiring skills may be a little “rusty” – not to mention new managers who may have not had thorough training or experience in hiring.  In this kind of environment, there’s plenty of opportunity for error and costly hiring mistakes.

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As companies begin taking applications and considering candidates, it’s time to assess your hiring processes and the managers using them.  And the most important component in any hiring process is the interviewer.There is no substitute for a skillful interviewer who understands your company’s culture and the human characteristics that the job requires…no substitute!

Managers seem to be always looking for the hiring panacea… the pre-employment test, the latest hiring process fad, the web based application center, or the high priced recruiting firm… but nothing can replace the benefits of a good interviewer. Companies would be well advised to not spend a penny on hiring aids until they have established the internal competency of effective interviewing. To avoid terrible and costly hiring mistakes, the hiring process must be staffed by managers who know what they’re doing… managers who know how to conduct effective interviews.

Good hiring decisions depend on open candid discussion, relevant facts, and accurate information. Getting those facts isn’t easy. It takes skill. Organizations that hire well create an environment that facilitates open conversation between job candidates and interviewers. Their hiring process fosters a sense of trust and security and the candid flow of information.

Excellent interviewers have the skill of discernment. They can separate “fact from fantasy”. Discernment is a “trainable” skill, and managers can be taught to     improve their “judgment calls”. Good judgment depends upon the interviewer’s attitude and skills that set the stage for successful interviews.  These include…

• Planning – Never “wing it”, or depend upon “pet theories” in an interview.  Good interviewers are prepared.  They know what they’re looking for, and questions to ask to get the information they need.
• Instincts – Experienced interviewers trust their instincts. If candidates’ answers defy their personal sense of logic, they follow up for more information.
• Inconsistencies – Conflicting answers are taken very seriously. A candidate should never be hired if inconsistencies cannot be reconciled.
• Motives for job change – Changing jobs is a significant life changing event.  Understanding why a candidate changed jobs, and how the candidate made the decision to change reveals a lot about the factors that motivate him.
• Behavioral interviewing – Understanding the human behaviors that a job requires, and having the ability to identify whether the candidate has exhibited those behaviors in the past, is the most important interviewing skill.  Good interviewers have “mastered the art” of behavioral interviewing.

There are no shortcuts to good hiring practices. Interviewing is the most important component of any hiring process.  Effective interviewers are your best firewall and protection from costly and often tragic hiring mistakes.

About the Author: Bill Miller, President of Performance Leadership, LLC, has a unique blend of practical management experience and creative talent. His experience spans a 35 year career with Cintas Corporation. Bill was Vice President of Cintas’ Great Lakes Region operations before returning to the Cincinnati headquarters to lead the company’s Management Training and Development programs.  He helped the company build one of the most successful management teams in the country.

Bill is now focusing on helping other companies develop effective management teams through improved leadership and people skills and effective hiring systems.  He has initiated new approaches to solving old problems in the area of employee health care costs.

wmiller@performanceleadershipllc.com
http://www.performanceleadershipllc.com

When you come across the phrase the art of the soft sell, you might focus your attention on the word “soft.”  You might not even do this consciously; many salespeople don’t.

And based on this unconscious focusing, you may lead yourself to believe that the difference between conventional selling and “soft” selling is…well, that you just do the lattersofter.

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That is, that you do what you’ve always done, but you sayplease a bit more, or you say it’s really up to you, I’m not here to pressure you, I care more about you than the sale…and other things that, when we write them here in black and white, reveal themselves — perhaps a bit embarrassingly — to be what they are: “injected” politeness within a conventional sales approach.  It’s similar to how aggressive, direct-speech people come across when they first try to be “more diplomatic.”  Instead of telling you that you’re a total idiot, they say: please let me say that you’re a total idiot.

Not very diplomatic, is it?

Nor is the above-described approach to soft-selling very soft.  The reason?  It’s all about that unconscious focusing.  It’s on the wrong word.

The word to care about here is art; because soft selling really is an art!  Just as how you are allowed to look at art and derive your own, personal meaning — the artist EMPOWERS you to do that — true soft selling also has to follow the same path.  It has to EMPOWER prospects to build their own meaning, to assess their own value, and to determine — on their own — if you’re selling the solution that they want.

Naturally, you can — and should – assist prospects on their journey of meaning-making.  Just as painters don’t offer you a blank painting and say: go ahead and paint whatever you want, I’m easy, you have a variety of tools and techniques at your disposal to usher your prospect towards a favorable destination (a.k.a. doing business with you).  These tools and techniques include:

• free, unbiased articles, newsletters, white papers, and other information sources that help your prospect become a better buyer (even if they don’t buy from you)
• providing a free assessment or evaluation that will be valuable to your prospect even if they decide to do business elsewhere (or perhaps not at all)
• paying careful attention to your prospect, and accurately interpreting non-verbal “busy signals” so you know to back off before they ask you to give them more time
• while promoting the benefits of your solution, honestly and openly share the limitations too; your prospect KNOWS that limitations exist — fill in the blanks with reality, instead of leaving it up to your prospect’s (potentially pessimistic) imagination
• ensure that your prospect “saves face” – don’t position your selling effort so that your prospect feels “stupid” or “unclear” if they don’t do business with you right now

Remember, the key word in the art of soft-selling is the word art, and art is, by its very nature, EMPOWERING.  As a “soft seller,” you must truly empower your prospect.  Anything less isn’t merely not soft selling, but worse, it’s not artistic.

And crimes against art are hardly forgivable, in galleries or sales efforts alike.

CBS runs a series called Undercover Boss. While a little too melodramatic for my tastes, the moral of the story is germane for every business owner and for everyone responsible for sales and marketing.

In case you haven’t seen Undercover Boss, the premise is that a boss, CEO, or president of a business goes undercover to work alongside his employees. He sees what they see… and experiences first hand what it’s like to work in the trenches.

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Obviously, the boss sees things from a very different perspective. At the end, the boss is humbled, everyone hugs and cries, and a few employees are singled out and rewarded financially.

As business owners –– and as those responsible for sales and marketing –– it is equally as important for us to go undercover as a prospect to our own business or organization.
So what if you could disguise yourself as a prospect and come in contact with your business or organization for the first time, what would your experience be?

Or better yet, on a continuum from great to poor with “barely acceptable” in the middle, how would your business score when it comes to attracting your attention in the first place, greeting you properly, making you feel important, educating you, listening and understanding what you as a prospect wants and needs, and so on?

How would your business score on the sales presentation? And most importantly, would you buy… would you become a customer or client as a result of their efforts?

Marketing and the sales process are not stand-alone activities. Each, individually, is a process. Combined they are a process. And every process can be improved.

Knowing that, the key to bringing about significant, across-the-board improvements starts when you take a good, hard look at every aspect of your marketing and sales process and, of course, when you are willing to make those changes or improvements to the process.

While the producers at Undercover Boss might not choose to feature you in one of their upcoming episodes, you can create your own episode by putting yourself in the shoes of your prospects and clients.

By doing so, you could go a long way toward improving your sales process, streamlining it, shortening it, and making it more efficient and efficient… to the end that you see a better outcome (defined as more sales and profits).

GIL EFFRON is an experienced business advisor and marketing strategist. As founder and CEO of New York City-based Strategies For Growth, he works with established businesses as well as startups to help them avoid critical mistakes and maximize opportunities.

Gil also heads Strategies For Growth’s 10-Day Marketing Makeover initiative. This program is designed to help owners of small to medium-sized businesses increase sales and profitability by streamlining and shortening their sales process and installing the most appropriate and effective marketing to support that sales process.

Read more articles by Gil at www.gileffron.com

Brooklyn Community Services (BCS) awarded its 2010 “Partner in Industry Award” to Tanner Bolt & Nut Corp, a local Brooklyn business.

BCS recognized Tanner for its onsite job training of adults with disabilities. In 2010, Tanner worked with Brooklyn Unlimited to setup a “workstation” (training site) within its 25,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Brooklyn. 14 adults with disabilities have since trained and worked at Tanner’s workstation where they assembled nuts and bolts, packed shipments, and helped with other warehouse tasks. More than half have gone on to successful job placements.

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Although the concept — employing disabled adults for tasks critical to Tanner’s business — may seem unorthodox to some, Jeffrey Tannenbaum, owner of Tanner Bolt & Nut, and Peter Dixon, Operations Manager, jumped on the opportunity as soon as it was presented to them.

Michael Rosenthal, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, introduced the idea to Tanner, and within six weeks Mr. Tannenbaum and Mr. Dixon had a workstation up and running.

When asked about his company’s involvement with the program, Mr. Tannenbaum says, “They are a tremendous benefit to our business, I’m very proud.” Mr. Dixon elaborated further saying “As a local Brooklyn business since 1979, this type of community involvement makes the company’s entrepreneurial struggles worth it.”

Founded in 1979, Tanner Bolt & Nut Corp. is a leading supplier of fasteners and industrial supplies. Tanner occupies 25,000 square feet of office and warehouse space in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. Visit Tanner online at http://www.tannerbolt.com.

Founded in 1866, Brooklyn Community Services is a not-for-profit, non-sectarian, community-based social services agency. BCS’s more than 300 volunteers served over 11,000 people last year alone. Learn more about BCS’s diverse array of social services, including vocational training, job placement, social & mental support, and more, by visiting http://www.bbcs.org/.

If your company is interested in training or hiring disabled adults and would like more information on this program, contact Brooklyn Unlimited (http://www.brooklynunlimited.org/).

If you’re a respected member of a business or social network, you’ve inevitably been posed the question, “Can I pick your brain?” Besides just the ugly visual, there is something very selfish about this common request; particularly in a networking setting.

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Perhaps it’s just a sign of the times that help and advice are in great demand by a growing number of people. That’s understandable. But, asking for assistance without the desire to reciprocate directly contradicts the give and take that should be happening between you and your networking contacts.

If you are a guilty offender who has been known to “pick the brains” of unsuspecting fellow networkers without offering anything in return, it’s time to rethink your behavior. Everyone is currently going through challenges, and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who couldn’t benefit from the advice, support, and help of others. However, in networking, it’s about sharing, not just receiving. Regardless of your situation, you do have the ability to help others.

How do you reciprocate the favor of someone who has provided you with a piece of valuable advice? It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. It can be as simple as facilitating an introduction to someone who could be a good contact or sending them a relevant article that they might find useful. There are countless ways to show your appreciation and provide value to your contacts without having to spend a dime.

At the end of the day, you’ll need to develop and communicate a sense of give and take if you’re going to be a valuable and respected member of a network. Once you do, you’ll be amazed by the wonderful people who truly want to help you without you ever having to ask to “pick their brains”.
For over 20 years, Adrian Miller has been a strategic ally to companies requiring results-driven, sales-level performance training and executive-level business development consulting. As the president of Adrian Miller Sales Training, she is a highly recognized sales training expert. Learn more about Adrian at http://www.adrianmiller.com or join Adrian’s innovative virtual networking community at http://www.adriansnetwork.com.

There was a time when the world of advertising cared only about the “features” a product had. It came in four colors, three sizes, and two shapes. That was really all that was ever needed to say.

Then some high-powered Madison Avenue advertising executive discovered the importance of translating features into “benefits.” Because it came in four colors, you could color-coordinate with everything in your wardrobe. Because it came in three sizes, one would be ideal for every kitchen counter top. Well, you get the picture.

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Then the greatest revelation of all surfaced from within the world of direct marketing. The new corollary went like this: You needed more than features and you needed more than benefits…

People need a compelling “reason” to buy!

In other words, you needed an “offer” — a compelling “reason” for people to call, to respond, to pick up the phone, to check out your website, to place an online order, to send a fax, and so on.

Yet with this revelation and wisdom widely known throughout the direct mail industry, it is amazing how many pieces of mail arrive at their destination missing even the most basic offer. All the facts and figures are there. And so are some benefits. But the offer is nowhere to be seen.

The problem is that without this offer to propel an action, no action occurs.

And that means your direct mail solicitation can be doomed before it gets started.

A real life example

Let’s look at an example. Say you’re selling something for the home. The hot new rage these days is whole-house electrical power backup systems… for when the power grids fail.

Instead of jumping into telling about how the system works or what it does, you start with fear — by instilling a generous dose of fear in your sales letter and direct mail materials… fear about how bad things can be if and when the power goes out for days on end. Through fear, you create a concern and a need that the consumer didn’t have before.

Next, you create an offer that helps to eliminate the fear: a free in-home consultation and whole-house electrical system safety check. Everyone is concerned about safety at home. And electrical problems that lead to fires are no fun.

So after you present the fear, you spend more time in your sales letter developing the importance of this free in-home consultation and whole-house electrical safety check than you do about the features or benefits of your power backup system. The reason is that…
Read full article here

Gil Effron is president/CEO of Strategies for Growth and head of 10-Day Marketing Makeover. He is a business and marketing consultant and advisor with over 35 years of experience. Effron is also the author of “How to Give Your Business an Extreme Marketing Makeover” that outlines his 5-step process for improving your marketing efforts.

An article that originally appeared in the New York Times on October 15, 1997, titled “In War Against No-Shows, Restaurants Get Tougher,” by William Grimes is especially relevant for us as salespeople. Here is an excerpt:

Gordon Sinclair, the owner of Gordon restaurant in Chicago, had an epiphany about 10 years ago when he began adding up the cost of no-shows and found that the grand total was $900,000 a year, a figure that got him thinking, fast.

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He made a change in the restaurant’s procedure that underlines the curious moral status of a restaurant reservation, which is less than a contract but something more binding than “let’s have lunch.”

He instructed his receptionists to stop saying,
“Please call us if you change your plans,” and start saying, “WILL you call us if you change your plans?”

His no-show rate dropped from 30 percent to 10 percent!

In other words — by asking a question and eliciting a response — Sinclair created a sense of obligation. Getting that soft commitment made a huge impact.

“May I send you some information?” is asking the prospect to give you permission; “If I send you some information, will you look it over and we can talk again in a few weeks?” is asking the prospect to commit to the next step.

If you’re able to engage them at all, you should be able to ask for some commitment–not permission.

If they’re too busy right now — or their budget monies are coming in two weeks — “Will we be able to talk more about this when I call back in a few weeks?” is asking for commitment and implies that they need to be ready for that conversation when you do call back. Then, you have a reason to send them material, so they’ll be ready.

On the other hand, “May I call you in a few weeks?” is simply asking for permission.

People like to honor their commitments. If the call ends and they have only given you permission, why would they care what happens next? The ball is not in their court.

But, if the call ends and they’ve committed to doing something, odds are good they’ll do it. And, if asking for that commitment doesn’t feel right, then it probably means you’ve got more work to do in building interest.

Make it your goal on every call to ask a version of “Will you…?” as opposed to “May I…?”

Art Sobczak helps sales pros use the phone to prospect, service and sell more effectively, while eliminating morale-killing “rejection.” To get a weekly emailed TelE-Sales Tips at no cost visit: http://www.BusinessByPhone.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Art_Sobczak

We all do it. We all go to a variety of networking functions: mixers, meetings, seminars, conferences. Just showing up certainly doesn’t guarantee getting connected or meeting people who are your buyers or can get you closer to your decision maker. Just showing up certainly doesn’t guarantee that you will increase your sales. And how often do you end up talking to the first person you encounter and never have a chance meet anyone else? That certainly doesn’t help you achieve filling the pipeline to grow your business.

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What if you treated the next networking function like it was your party? You are the host. That means it’s your responsibility to meet and greet everyone in the room. Introduce people who don’t know each other to each other. Basically, be in charge of everyone else having a good time.

It’s an interesting concept and it does work. I was tired of getting “stuck” talking to the first person I met. And quite often they weren’t anyone who could be a potential client or put me closer to one. I got tired of feeling like I had wasted my evening, because these networking events were not helping me to increase my sales.

Then I began treating each networking function as if it was my own party. I would meet the first person, talk to them and find out as much as I could in a few minutes. With the right questions they’ll gladly talk about themselves. I knew I wanted to meet more people, so I’d invite them to go with me to meet others. I’d introduce myself and my new acquaintance, ask a few questions to get them talking and most of the time left them to each other as I went on to meet the next person.

I’d repeat the process throughout the evening. Before we were sitting down to dinner or whatever was next on the agenda, I had met a significant amount of people, given – and taken – business cards, and more importantly made everyone feel good about themselves. That, in turn, made me memorable. There were plenty of people who now wanted to “sit” with me.

The host and party format has worked well for me. My follow-up phone calls are taken and requests for other connections are well received. I’m making the connections to increase my sales and I’m having a ‘ball’ at someone else’s party.

Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to energize, engage and equip their sales team to sell each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster meetings help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power. To learn more, visit http://www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free ready-to-go sales training kit today!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alice_Kemper