The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Mentoring is all the rage

Thanks to good search engine optimization and keyword placement, I was found on the web earlier this year by Fabianne B. Wolff Gershon, Director of The Thypin Oltchick Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at FEGS.

Fabianne had been searching online for experts to be part of a panel discussion called, "Mentors are the Key to Your Business' Boom." It was held last month in New York and I was flattered to be on a panel with Sheila Wellington, a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business and former President of Catalyst and a colleague I'd lost touch with, Joanna Krotz, business journalist and president of Muse2Muse.

It was interesting to be speaking on the topic of "mentoring" (rather than marketing) and to think about the various types -- formal and informal, short term and long term. We all agreed that, although mentoring is very trendy right now, it's not something to take lightly and requires a strong commitment from both parties. (You can read the summary of the event here.)

Check out their resource-rich, NY-centric Partners page.

This event is also where I met Reg Foster of IBM, who was promoting their new resource web site for small business owners.

Great resource for women in business

When I was in Seattle recently, I spent my last day networking, from breakfast to coffee to lunch, then another coffee (actually lemonade) and then dinner.

The lemonade was with Lisa Quast, Founder and President of CareerWomanInc.com. This web site is part of Lisa's mission to help women in the corporate world succeed.

Lisa knows what she's talking about. As Executive Vice President of Strategy Planning for Philips Healthcare, a $10 billion division of Royal Philips Electronics, she is one of a small group of women executives in a company of ~150,000 employees; hence her mission -- to help women in the corporate world take control of their careers and achieve their career aspirations.

Her web site is here and her book, Your Career, Your Way: Personal Strategies to Achieve your Career Aspirations can be found online at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Frankly, Lisa wants to help all women succeed. So check out the site and if you have ideas that would be useful to this market (and want to get some more exposure on the web), send them to Lisa at lisa -- AT SIGN -- careerwomaninc --DOT-- com.

A better way to think about cold calling

I'm seeing a pattern to the conquering of fear where cold calling is concerned.

Judith Reppucci described her "Just Do It" method of turning things around right here last week.

And the other day, I got an email from designer and Twitter bud of mine, Dani Nordin, of The Zen Kitchen. She's in the throes of ratcheting up her business; in fact, she recently became a Marketing Mentor client, to help things along.

In a recent blog post, Dani relates that she realized pretty fast (smart girl!) that part of the engine of growth at this new and rarified level is—you guessed it—cold calling.

She also talks about the small-but-huge shift in attitude that helped her get over the hump of a couple different aspects of connecting:

In my mind, part of the reason networking events (or cold calls, for that matter) can be difficult for some folks is because it's hard to tell what the point is. What are you looking for? What do you expect to happen? What would you LIKE to happen? And often, I've found that just articulating that one thing before you get to an event, or before you call a prospect, can make all the difference between leaving the situation feeling like you've gotten something done and leaving feeling like you've just wasted your time.

Both Dani and Judith are really doing the same thing: looking at something differently. It's a small but significant shift. In Dani's case, she came up with an actual prescription (which I love, and plan to use); Judith powered through, but still, the fundamental difference between before and after for her was to wonder "what if?"

What if I could make this a pleasant experience? What if I felt the fear and did it anyway?

I've been thinking about this a lot myself, wondering what I would do or how I would act if I wasn't afraid of x, y or z. For me, kind of ironically, the fear has been more about expressing fear. And guess what? In not one single instance has actually verbalizing something I thought might be stupid, lame or foolhardy made me blow up in a puff of flames and smoke; most times, the thing itself wasn't even stupid!

What one thing have you looked at differently lately? And has looking at it in a new way either changed how you dealt with it, or made it possible to deal with it at all?

All signs point towards poor marketing?

PAMPARED PETS

This was the headline on a sign I saw for a dog walking service when I took Charlie to the dog park this morning to play with his buddies.

My first thought was, "These people can't spell; how could I let them walk my dog?"

Now, logically, there is no connection between spelling and dog walking. I'm sure there are plenty of excellent dog walkers who can't spell. So why did I jump to that conclusion?

Because I am very quick to judge and the sign is all I had to go on to make my judgment. And I believe this happens a lot on the World Wide Web. When what you see on a web page about a company isn't perfect, it's ever so easy to make a harsh judgment. (Do you do this too?)

I think we need to be a little more forgiving on the one hand, and a little more attentive on the other. Spell check doesn't catch everything (although "pampared" is not a word, as far as I know). But when I think about how quickly I'm typing and how tempting it is to multitask, I do hope others will be more forgiving of me than I often am of others.

I know I'm not alone. At least once a week, I hear someone say they won't work with a resource because there was a typo on their web site. Have you ever done that?

New podcast up: How does your business grow?

Tuesday is Podcast Day here at Marketing Mix blog. And (sniff, sniff) this is the LAST podcast from Peleg's and Ilise's new book, The Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing.

The final 13th of 13 podcasts covers Chapter 12: How Should I Grow My Business?

Take a listen, and please let us know what you think in the comments!

 

Tuesday is Podcast Day here at Marketing Mix blog. And (sniff, sniff) this is the LAST podcast from Peleg's and Ilise's new book, The Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing.

The final 13th of 13 podcasts covers Chapter 12: How Should I Grow My Business?

Take a listen, and please let us know what you think in the comments!

 

More goodies from Bizjam

Here's a round-up of a few of the blog posts about Bizjam.

Here's where the speaker presentations (including mine) are posted for all to see
(using this really cool web site.)

And if you're not sure exactly how to do the nitty gritty follow up to a conference like Bizjam, check out this blog post from Judy Dunn, of MarketingYourSmallBiz.com.

Enjoy!

Guest Post: Conquering fear in one easy (cold) call

As she herself admits, Judith Reppucci should be a killer cold caller. She's a successful marketing copywriter with 15 years' experience in old-school, pound-the-pavement sales--for the Yellow Pages! So, fearless, right? No problem, right?

Well, the following account just proves that no one may be immune to fears about cold calling. And also that there is a way out, and it just might be Ilise & Peleg's no-nonsense, low-key approach to cold calls. Listen to Judith's experience of putting the information and inspiration she found in the Designer's Guide to Marketing & Pricing Podcast into action—serious action!

Six months ago, I met an mailing house exec at a New England Direct Marketer’s networking event. When she heard that I specialized in direct mail fundraising copy, she told me to call her coworker in the nonprofit side of their business. “They might be looking for some help,” she said. She even gave me the extension number, and told me to say she asked me to call.

Really, could there possibly be a better warm lead?

I have a folder of cold calling advice. I’ve read a half dozen books on how to cold-call. I’ve even been videotaped for cold call critiques. No matter. I was still stuck, mired in the fear that my value proposition wasn’t good enough, and that I’d get nervous and fumble (it’s happened before). I’m beyond ashamed that I’m such a big old wuss.

Then, a few weeks ago, while I was recovering from surgery, I started listening to your wonderful and very generous podcasts (thanks, Peleg, you’re great,too.) And, just listening to your casual, low-key delivery has made all the difference. Gee, you mean, you really don’t have to dial with all your marketing guns blazing? You don’t have to reel off a phony sales spiel when you‘re transferred to voice mail? And you can actually act, hmmm, natural and even genuine?

Yesterday I listened to Marketing Mentor podcast number six, the one with cold call role plays. “I can do that,” I told myself.

And guess what?

I did!

In fact, I just hung up from a great phone call with that prospect I’ve been avoiding.

When I gave the name of my referral at NEDMA, the prospect said, “Oh, sure.”

When I told him what I did and who I’ve worked for he said, “Oh, if you work for them, I guess you do a lot of hospital work.”

When I asked if he uses outside copywriters, he responded, “Not right now, but we’re expanding to more cause based clients, so this call might be coming at a good time for the fall appeals.”

And the rest of the call continued like something out of a cold call success story. Yes, indeed, he agreed it would be a good idea for me to send him a package of my work and my business card. Yes, he’d like it if I stayed in touch – and he readily gave me his e-mail. Yes, in fact, he wanted me to give him a call later this summer.

I've got to wrap this up because I have to send off my e-mail follow-up (gotta do it within 30 minutes, right?), but thanks again for all the easy-to-follow advice on the podcasts.

Oh—and speaking of podcasts, as a result of listening to yours, I’ve already ordered The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing. It’s very clear that you have great advice for copywriters, too!

Judith Reppucci is an independent copywriter, and she lives on beautiful Cape Cod. She crafts fundraising appeals for direct marketing consultants and nonprofit organizations. She also writes marketing collateral and online material for business and healthcare organizations. You can reach her at judith AT reppucci DOT com or at her website.

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Have you learned anything from the Designer's Guide podcasts (not just for designers anymore!) you've already put to use? Got a great story, flash of insight or other fantastic tidbit to share with the class? Email me (colleen AT marketing-mentor DOT com) and maybe we can help make everyone a little bit smarter.

The nexus between organization and promotion

One thing a lot of people don't know about Ilise is that her roots are in professional organizing. I forget it myself, since she's so good at marketing, self-promotion and helping other people get a handle on their own tasks in those areas.

But a quote of hers for a story in this recent edition of The Oklahoman reminded me of the link between one and the other. She talks mentions that she "consistently found information on self-promotion at the bottom of piles of paper that people saved." Clutter was literally getting in the way of her clients' ability to promote themselves—and, I'm sure, a lot of other tasks.

I struggle with staying on top of things myself. On the one hand, I'm a huge fan of organizing as an art or even a science; on the other, I'm really abysmal at the day-to-day practice of staying organized, and implementing my tools and systems to actually get my work done.

I'm wondering if I'm alone in this, or how alone I am in this. Are you organized? Do you use your skills in service of work? Or do you get a lot of stuff done, self-promotion and marketing included, despite being disorganized?

(Thanks to Kay Stout for the heads-up on the article.)

Guest Post: The Girls Just Wanna Have Businesses

Marketing Mentor client Jezra Kaye has talked about her networking experiences in the field before for the Marketing Mix blog. Today's story details a recent experience in the company of women, and covers some interesting changes in the nature of networking over the years.

The best networking experience I’ve had in over a year (perhaps ever) was at last Friday’s Womensphere Entrepreneurial Leadership Summit—a one-day event in NYC that was inspiring, informative and fun.   

The 200+ women (and over 40 speakers) who gathered to present, learn and brainstorm on topics ranging from Web 2.0 to Angel Investing to The Entrepreneurial Life Cycle ran the gamut of business types—from college women launching their first ventures (one example:  leak-proof, stain-resistant panties) to recent biz school grads (“HBS” was a much-heard acronym) to venture capitalists to celebrity bloggers to CEOs of long-established firms.

Every age, stage and ethnicity was represented—yet there were two big areas of commonality among these extraordinarily diverse and interesting women:

1.  They were NICE. The passion for entrepreneurship is a great leveler.  But credit for the collegiality at this event also goes to the Womensphere team, led by CEO/Founder Analisa Balares, which set a tone of warmth, enthusiasm, curiosity and inclusion.  This atmosphere of easy acceptance meant that everyone spoke to everyone else—and the business cards were flying.   

2.  They had GREAT SHOES. “Dress for success” used to mean ugly navy suits and white broadcloth shirts, but the vividly dressed entrepreneurs at this conference made it clear that those days are gone for good.  We aren’t just blazing new trails—we’re doing it in pumps, peek-toes, platforms and spikes.

Carrie Bradshaw, eat your heart out!

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Jezra Kaye is a master speaker coach and speechwriter who helps her clients say the things that matter.  On 7/29, she’ll be leading “PRESTO! Presentation,” a workshop on how to talk to anyone about any topic, in New York City.  Learn more at Jezra's website, or sign up for her newsletter.

New podcast up: What you should know about contracts

Tuesday is Podcast Day here at Marketing Mix blog. Only two more podcasts in the series to go from Peleg's and Ilise's new book, The Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing.

The 12th of 13 podcasts covers Chapter 11, and everything you need to keep you covered—in a contract, that is.  

Take a listen, and please let us know what you think in the comments!

 

Tuesday is Podcast Day here at Marketing Mix blog. Only two more podcasts in the series to go from Peleg's and Ilise's new book, The Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing.

The 12th of 13 podcasts covers Chapter 11, and everything you need to keep you covered—in a contract, that is.  

Take a listen, and please let us know what you think in the comments!