Today's issue contains three great articles. The first promotes using booklets as your next tradeshow giveaways. The second describes how to create a sales letter that works. The third explains how to know if you should upgrade to Microsoft 2003 or not.
We’ve also added a Quick Tip section covering items, books and processes that work for us.
Your only dues for receiving The Next Level are to pass it along to anyone you think may benefit and use the marketing resources at www.nextlevelnews.com to increase your sales and build your business.
Best regards,
-John Libonati, Editor
If you don't see your Chamber of Commerce on our Events page, tell them to sign up now. Go to our Networking Section!
October 15. Business Card Exchange. Madison Bank, Horsham.
October 15. Open House and Guest Appreciation Night. Spring Hill Suites by Marriott.
October 15. Free Lunch with Business Networking International.
October 16. Joint Business Card Exchange. Willow Grove.
October 16. Java and Jazz. Great Room, Cedarbrook Apartments, Wyncote.
October 19. Fine Art Auction. Willow Grove Chamber of Commerce. Do not miss this fantastic event. Visit www.willowgrovechamber.com and Contact me for tickets. A portion of the proceeds will go to Pediatric Rehabilitation at Holy Redeemer Hospital. John - 215-591-1010
Do not miss these upcoming networking events. Click here for information about these events and many more!
APC Uninterrupted Power Supply Back Up Units Saved Our Equipment from Isabel
Hurricane Isabel wiped out power for Millions. Not us.
We purchased APC UPS back up power units three months ago. For less than $100. When Isabel killed the power, our APC back up systems kept things Running and even automatically shut down our computers safely for us! And everyday unexpected brown outs gradually destroy equipment...but Not our equipment.
Protect Your equipment, without spending a lot. Buy APC UPS back up units and Save your equipment. We’re glad we did.
Candy, squeeze balls, pens, and key chains -- these provide questionable value to anyone visiting or staffing a tradeshow booth. More and more meeting and marketing professionals are considering something a little different - booklets. They are a way to attract higher quality prospects, reap a handsome return on the investment of time and money in attending shows, and help set a company apart from the crowd.
What is a booklet? The ultimate purpose of a booklet is to educate a target audience. It contains tips, techniques or strategies to help accomplish certain tasks. Typically it measures 3 _" x 8 _", has 16 to24 pages, fits perfectly into a purse, pocket, or briefcase, and can conveniently be mailed in a standard #10 business envelope.
The following five points highlight how you can use booklets as a powerful marketing tool to increase sales from tradeshow leads.
1. Why booklets make a great tradeshow giveaway item. Booklets have a lasting value, more than many handouts currently used at tradeshows. Yet booklets are not overpowering in any way. One major purpose in exhibiting at a show is to educate your target audience about how you can provide solutions to their challenges. A booklet packed full of a useful tips might address those challenges. In addition, it heightens your company's credibility as an expert in the industry, and draws the prospect to you when it’s time to purchase.
Your company's name on a coffee mug or pen doesn’t quite have the same impact when a prospect is looking for solutions to their challenges. Rather when they easily read your information in a booklet, you’re perceived as knowledgeable. Also, you leave the reader with the distinct impression that you are looking to establish a rapport, and a business relationship with them. Handing out booklets separates you from those with a dish of candy at their booth, or those who offer yet one more shopping bag. And, the cost of booklets is less than many other giveaways and can effectively and easily be used throughout the year in other parts of your sales and marketing efforts.
2. Who uses booklets as a giveaway? Anyone in any industry who is selling or exhibiting at a trade show is a candidate for using booklets as a unique promotional tool. A company can write and produce their own booklet, have a booklet produced for them, or purchase copies of someone else's booklet on a topic of interest for their target audience. Small, mid-sized, and large companies alike use booklets. The minimum purchases are usually completely manageable, and there is an economy of scale as you purchase larger quantities.
3. What kind of information to include in a booklet? The best information to include in a booklet is common sense, grass roots, basic, practical "how-to" content on a topic relevant to your business and important to your customers. The material can be solutions to everyday concerns, which people often overlook. Sometimes the "magic pill" answer to challenges turns out to be information that is known but merely forgotten. The booklet acts as a reminder. It can also serve as new information for novices to an industry.
4. How else you can use a booklet to market your company? Once you have produced a booklet, you can often find other organizations that can benefit from it. This then helps to recoup your production costs, should that be of concern. For example, a manufacturer could sell it to distributors. You also continue marketing your own company, and generate new revenue in the process.
Other uses include direct mail campaigns or licensing the rights to your booklet to another company. Licensing might also involve translating it into other languages to reach additional markets. Licensing agreements mean that the client produces the booklet. Your company grants specific rights, by written contract, for the client to do all the production of the booklet manuscript that your company owns.
Identify prospects in your own industry by looking at the vendors, suppliers, and manufacturers. Each is a marketing niche. Approach them in a common-sense way. Remember that you are providing solutions to many of your clients' problems.
5. What common mistakes do companies make when exhibiting? One of the biggest mistakes companies make when exhibiting is in repeating what other exhibitors are giving away, or repeating what the company has done year after year regardless of the results. An uninteresting handout makes the statement that a company has put limited thought into their clients' needs. The importance of educating the clients about how you can help them cannot be overstated. When your company makes one more sale because someone reads the booklet you gave them, the investment of purchasing or creating the booklet pays off handsomely.
Getting a return on the overall investment of the tradeshow is ultimately the primary reason for attending the show at all. Some industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, are now making a concerted effort to pull back on money spent on excessively expensive and inappropriate giveaways, and are turning toward giveaways with educational value.
Using a booklet as a tradeshow booth giveaway creates magic as you enjoy better-qualified leads that produce larger sales over a longer period of time with well-educated clients. A small investment in the booklet is definitely worth the large return.
Written by By Susan Friedmann, CSP and Written by Susan Friedmann, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, who works with exhibitors, show organizers and meeting planners to create more valuable results from their events nationally and internationally. Website: www.thetradeshowcoach.com. Author "Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies")
Although e-mails have taken a front seat in business communications, the business letter remains an important communication medium for salespeople for more formal or complex situations. Also, since the business letter is used less frequently than even a year ago, writing a letter can be a way to differentiate yourself. One client puzzled me when he said he appreciated the handwritten note I sent. When I looked confused, he corrected himself by saying, "It was a real letter."
Sales letters can be powerful. Unfortunately, most fall short. The biggest problems with follow-up letters (follow up to sales calls, phone conversations, meetings...) are:
1) No rapport 2) Generic vs. tailored to the client (The biggest problem) 3) Too long or too short 4) Filled with phrases such as "You said..." which can make the client feel cornered (Remember, a sales letter is not a negotiation or a binding agreement) 5) Not well structured 6) End reactively vs. proactively - i.e., "Call me if you have any questions" have no clear, specific next step - i.e., "I’ll call you next week" or they end with no action step at all
To help ensure your sales letters are as powerful as they can be, use this checklist:
Prepare: Determine the objective of your letter and the message you want to convey. First and foremost, look at your notes from the call. Your notes will help you relive the meeting and capture the client’s needs and language. Good notes give you an advantage in tailoring your letters and incorporating what is important to your client. As you read your notes, circle key needs and words and check them as you integrate them into your letter to show you understand and are addressing the client’s needs.
Structure: Use a flexible model made up of short paragraphs:
Paragraph 1
Limit to two sentences that are client-focused, not self-focused. Establish rapport and convey the purpose of the letter by making specific reference to client’s objective. For example - Sentence one: "Thank you for meeting with John and me to review your strategy and discuss with us your objectives to..." (identify the broadest objective, such as build sales culture ...not "to discuss with you our ..."). Keep the focus on the client in your second sentence. Refer to the value you derived from the meeting, for example, "The insights you shared were very helpful in our understanding your priorities, strategy, and your ... challenges."
Paragraph 2
Write about two to three sentences which include the client’s needs and how you can meet them. Reinforce what you need to reinforce. Also, dispel perceptions you may have to dispel. Begin the second paragraph with an affirmation of the client’s needs and your ability to meet them with phrases such as "Based on our discussion I feel confident we can support you in..." - and list two or three things the client wants to achieve in priority order. In the next sentence tailor your capabilities to address those needs. If you are covering two or three more involved topics, usually treat each in a separate short paragraph or better yet a bulleted format in paragraph two.
Paragraph 3 In this paragraph, tell the client what you are sending and any additional information you want to emphasize. Refer to any enclosures or materials you are including as references or whatever else you said you would include. (Always include a cover letter with any enclosures, a proposal, or any attachments and reference what you are sending and why.)
Paragraph 4
Thank the client. Express desire to work with the client and meet the client’s needs. Close the letter with your follow-up next step and a date you will contact the client. Keep the responsibility for follow up in your court. Tickle the follow-up step in your "to do" list and follow up flawlessly as promised.
Check: Edit. Keep most follow-up letters to a maximum of one page. Be concise but substantive. Use letters as follow-up to presentations and complex or more formal situations. Use short paragraphs. Keep the language positive. Be appropriately aggressive, but don’t be overly aggressive by making assumptions about where you are with the client. Also, you can e-mail the letter to get it there ASAP and mention "hard copy to follow with enclosures."
Check to make sure your letter communicates your message in a clear, concise, and persuasive (client-focused) way. Review your letter for grammar, punctuation, and spelling (install spell check) and proofread your letter. The biggest grammatical errors we see are:Dear Tom, use a colon (:) not a comma (,) - i.e., Dear Tom:Thank you for giving "Jane and I" should be "Jane and me" - cover the first name and it will be clear if you should use I or meSincerely Yours, use a small y followed by a comma (,) - i.e., Sincerely yours,
If you know your client will be sharing the materials with a colleague, send an additional copy and mention you are doing so.Pearl Buck once said, "I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time." Edit!
Microsoft Server 2003 – To upgrade or not to upgrade Written by: Joshua Schricker You’ve seen the commercials, Microsoft has spoken—"It’s time to upgrade…again!" All year we’ve had Windows XP for your workstations, and now, we have Server 2003 to run your network. Whether your old network is grinding to a halt, or you just want to be on the cutting edge, deciding to upgrade even a small network can be tough. When we’re asked about upgrading, we look at few key areas to determine what will work best for our clients.
Technical Feasibility – "How do we do it?"
Before any decision to upgrade is made, several technical considerations should be taken into account, including:
• Hardware compatibility—Will your current workstations and servers support an upgrade or do they need to be replaced?
One of the most common mistakes that clients make (particularly when trying to do upgrades themselves) is to upgrade right out of their hardware! Older peripherals such as modems and CD burners may not work with newer versions of Windows. Older machines may run very slowly—or, occasionally, not at all--on new operating systems due to slow processors or a lack of memory.
• Software compatibility—Will your current business applications be compatible with your new operating system?
Many users have suffered from this problem. You go through the pain of upgrading your workstation, complete with its suite of mission critical applications—the life-blood of the technical side of your business—and, "Ping!", you get an error. Your accounting program is incompatible with Windows XP. It is crucial to check with each vendor of your favorite applications before the upgrade and catalogue all compatibility issues. I can’t tell you how many times a client has informed me of a mission critical application only after the upgrade was finished. Older versions of software should be upgraded and made current. And most important of all, save your disks!
• Operating System compatibility—Are your current versions of Windows upgradable, or will you have to install from scratch?
Last but not least, can you upgrade? Windows only retains backward compatibility for a limited time. For instance, it is possible to upgrade directly from Windows NT to Windows 2000, but not from Windows for Workgroups. It is easier to upgrade from Windows 2000 to XP than from Windows 98 to 2000. Whether you upgrade or do a clean install will affect how long the upgrade will take, how difficult it is to migrate data and applications, to save user settings (i.e. your web links or your favorite wallpaper), and a host of other considerations.
Once you have looked at all these issues, you are ready to move on to the next set!
Practical Feasibility – "How will this upgrade affect my business?"
Once you have resolved the technical considerations and begun working on your plan—your "upgrade path" in tech-speak—you must look at how your plan may impact your business. Some questions which must be answered:
• How much downtime can you afford?
Upgrading even a small network can take several days or more. When can you afford to not to use your computers? Most competitive technology firms offer weekend and after hours installations. Fine for a 9 to 5 business, but what if you have shifts 24/7? Scheduling your upgrade must take the nature of your business into account.
• How is your data protected?
Even during a simple, well-planned upgrade problems can arise. Should an upgrade fail for any reason, how will this affect your ability to do business? Is your data backed up and easily restored? Does your plan include rollout stages, so that, should problems arise at any point, there are always machines running to handle mission critical aspects of your network? Unforeseen circumstances are the norm, not the exception, in this kind of project. The ability to quickly recover from any set-backs can mean the difference between a minor headache and a major crisis.
• Are your employees prepared for the new technology?
An oft-neglected aspect of upgrading is training. With any upgrade users can become confused at how to get their new PC to perform mundane tasks that, just a few days ago, were routine. Files are placed in slightly different places, folders get renamed, old familiar icons are now mysteriously absent from the desktop. Plan for a day or two of debriefing with your consultants, and be ready with questions!
These are just a few of the practical considerations that should be studied before you can move forward with confidence. (Next time we will discuss the final, critical consideration—Money!)
(In the last issue, we talked about some of the technological and practical considerations that should go into your decision to upgrade your network. In this issue we will look and the final and, for the business owner, most crucial issue…)
Financial Feasibility – "Can I afford it?"
This question has two parts. First, "How much will this cost?" The answer to this depends, in part, on the answers to the questions we asked in earlier sections. But of course that isn’t the whole story. Upgrading a single workstation to Windows XP Pro, is comparatively inexpensive compared to upgrading an entire network consisting of 20 workstations, 2 servers and a half-dozen out of date printers. A more important question is, "What do I want this upgrade to do for my business?"
The dollar cost of an upgrade should be weighed against the costs of not upgrading, and the value of what an upgraded network will do for you. Do you have a mobile sales force? Newer Windows Servers include robust VPN support, allowing your employees secure access to their information from just about anywhere. Do your employees share and collaborate on important documents? Windows 2003 includes support for Share-Point document management systems, allowing your employees to work on and track documents in progress. Is your network older? Newer hardware can run 3 to 4 times faster than older computers. Newer versions of Windows are faster and more stable than their predecessors.
And, there is what I call the "version wall". When a new operating system comes out, an older one loses support—Microsoft most recently withdrew support for Windows NT, and Windows 2000 Pro will not be far behind. As your network ages, not only does its useful life decrease, but the cost of a future upgrade creeps up. For many offices, the expense of an upgrade now is more than balanced out by the ongoing expenses of upkeep on their existing network, not to mention the spectre of an "emergency upgrade" is the not-to-distant future.
Once you have assessed you needs, and the value of planned enhancements to your current network, you can look at dollar cost in light of future benefits. Most clients tend to upgrade because their networks have reached a crisis, or one is looming just over the horizon. But, the real value in an upgrade is not simply to save your business from a potential disaster, but to streamline and speed up your business processes as they depend on your technology. A well planned upgrade shouldn’t simply put out fires, but rather light one under your network. The goal is increased efficiency and hopefully profits, by cutting your ongoing costs and enhancing your ability to sell your products and services.
Ultimately budgetary constraints and financing issues will inform your decisions and determine the direction of an upgrade. But even the dreaded "emergency upgrade" should be looked at with a critical eye—not only for how it will get your network back on its feet, but also for how it will ultimately enhance your ability to do business. The power today’s computer technology is extraordinary, compared to even a decade ago. Take advantage of your consultant’s expertise and get informed on all the technological opportunities out their for your business. In that way, you can turn the potential pain of an upgrade into future gain for your organization.
Good luck!
About the Author: Mr. Schricker holds both a BS and MS in Computer Science with a concentration in business, from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently a Senior Partner with Eastern Technology Services where he advices clients on and implements technology plans to enhance their efficiency and profitability. For more information about this topic or other topics, contact Mr. Schricker directly at 610.648.0166 x101 or jschricker@etsrv.com
October 19 Fine Art Auction, Greater Willow Grove Chamber of Commerce.
$25 is all you have to spend for an evening with 200 of the top business leaders in the area. Over 150 paintings, sports memorabilia, estate jewelry and more will be auctioned off.
Branding, Advertising, Marketing Consulting, Website Development, Public Relations and Printing
'Shaping Business Personalities Through Compelling Design'
We will build your brand awareness and increase your sales. Contact us today! Call 215.591.1010 or email us at john@ascensiondesign.net
-----------------------
Introducing the HelixMailer(tm) www.helixpoint.com
This newsletter was sent to you using the HelixMailer™, an affordable mass-emailing program that allows you to quickly send out your advertisements, newsletters, etc. HelixMailer™ helps you to bring in customers and keep them coming back!
----------------------- Introducing Easy-to-Make, Easy-to-View Dynamic 3-D Images from Ascension Design
Everyone who has experienced 3-D, panoramic, zoom-in and animated images knows they can boost customer interest and sales. Industry studies have shown an increase in sales of 25-300% and a decrease in returned items of 50% when 3-D product images are used in place of flat images.
You decide our next issue's topics! Choose from the below list or note topics you would like to see covered and e-mail us with the word 'topic' in the subject line at editor@nextlevelnews.com.
Subjects include anything related to advertising, graphic design, marketing strategy, website development, illustration, photography and media placement.
Your input determines how our newsletter evolves. We will adapt the newsletter to your needs. Please send your comments and suggestions to editor@nextlevelnews.com. Thanks!
To recieve advertising information, sent a blank email to:
We respect your privacy and do not share or sell any of our subscriber's information.
Our email list only consists of people who have subscribed, people we have met or communicated with in the past, business contacts from previous business endeavors, business to business expos, trade shows, contacts from local business and professional associations to which we belong, and other such personal and business contacts we have made throughout our personal and professional careers. We hope you enjoy these newsletters and find them informative and helpful. Should you wish to unsubscribe, simply click the link below.
