nbmedia, Author at EM Solutions

Presentation Skills 101-2 The Personal Elevator Pitch

We are asked to introduce ourselves many times each day. This should be done in a short sharp 10-15 word sentence. Accompany this with your business card and a smile and you are already in the top 10% of people in the room.

So let’s look at the anatomy of a personal introduction. It needs to include the following information:

Your name
Your interest
Your job function
The business you work for
Call to action

Write these out in point form and then just string them together to make a sentence. Keep it witty and easy to understand. Drop any long syllable words and technical words and it should be done.

Remember that people want to do business with people before doing business with your business, so be a person first. Be interesting and show yourself, step out from behind the business mask and be the real you.

If you are stuck with this try some of the following techniques;

Mention your favorite sports team
Tell people of a recent accomplishment
Tell people about a book you are reading
Share a good bit about your family

The more you practice this the better you will become. Practice, practice, practice, until you are confident.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:31+02:00August 12th, 2014|Business Resources, EI Clients, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Presentation Skills 101-1 Introduction to Presenting

Public Speaking is one of the most feared and avoided tasks among modern civilizations. Apparently people would rather run naked through a crowded room or die of drowning than speak in front of a group of people. The good news is that unlike drowning, speaking does get better and easier the more you prepare and practice, not sure about the being naked part.

We are going to look at some simple techniques and tools that will set you apart from others and get you to a point where you can walk into a room with confidence knowing that you are confident, capable and prepared to handle whatever is requested from you. Winston Churchill said, “The best unprepared speech I ever did, was the one I prepared the night before.”

As an Entrepreneur you will be required to be prepared to pitch yourself, your business and your ideas to people at the drop of a hat. This week we will take you through the preparation of the following presentations;

Personal Elevator pitch
Business Elevator pitch
Tips on Visual Aids
More tips on presenting

The rules of any presentation are simple: Keep it simple. Unless you are presenting a scientific notation to a bunch of PhD graduates at MIT, keep it simple. People do not enjoy getting bogged down by detail. They are never impressed by your ability to show off how clever you think you are by using big words and techno jargon. Simple wins every time.

At the end of your pitch there are six questions that, if you could ask your audience, would grade the success of your presentation;

Can they repeat your main points?
Could they visualise what you were saying?
Will they remember this tomorrow?
Could they relate it to their own lives?
Did they respect what you were saying?
Do they want to talk to you afterwards?

Wow, heavy questions, but worthy of keeping in mind as you prepare your presentation.

Let us know of some of your presentation ‘YES’ and ‘OH NO’ experiences.

By nbmedia|2014-08-11T11:07:00+02:00August 11th, 2014|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Missile Marketing 5: FAF

To simply FAF, Fire and Forget a missile require a lot of confidence in your product, technology and targeting system. Missiles that use this technology today are expensive and only used when other methods are not viable.

But in marketing, this method of Fire and Forget is not only the best method, but the cheapest as well. A well established network of happy customers, appointed Brand Champions and solid referral strategy will see your marketing develop from strength to strength. Here are some simple, yet effective FAF strategies for your business:

Develop a team of Brand Champions who will assist in marketing to potential customers that you do not have direct access to.
Develop a strategy to gain referrals from others. This can be done through your current customer base as well as through networking organisations such as BNI.
Develop a number of Affiliate programmes into your business. This is normally done using other businesses that you refer to or recommend and in doing so earn an income.
Develop a number of online forms, landing pages and links that will automatically direct customers to the place ofpurchase. This requires some planning in design, but once done well, will give you a constant stream of income.
Converting some of your wisdom or products to video or into a book, will develop alternate income streams into yourbusiness. There are a number of online platforms that will host your training materiel or eBooks and send you money each month for sales achieved.

This is just some of the strategies we use for ourselves and our clients. Fire and Forget, with confidence and guaranteed results time and time again. Take time to develop these into your business for a more focused strategy to developing a diverse array of income streams.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:32+02:00August 4th, 2014|Marketing, Social Media|0 Comments

Missile Marketing 4: SACLOS

We have chatted about HOPE and MCLOS as ways to run your marketing strategies, but there is a more advanced technology used to fire missiles. Called SACLOS, Semi-Automatic Command to Line Of Sight. This allows the target to be loaded into some form of guidance system and then only minor adjustments are required to hit the bulls-eye.

Seen in military using wire connected torpedoes or guidance missiles led to their target using laser painted targeting systems. The outcome is much better than manual targeting or hope. But still requires some manual processes.

As example marketing online using Pay-per-click on FaceBook or Google. You can set up your desired target audience ahead of time and then start your campaign. It runs well, but may require some minor adjustments as it progresses.

This is also seen in live marketing such as Expos, talks or 1-on-1 marketing. A set structure is designed ahead of time and then may be adjusted according to the audience you are delivering to.

Effective and better than others discussed but still requires manual input and some form of intellectual strategy to get the best results.

But is there a better way? Could it be possible to Fire and Forget and know that you will hit your target. More on this in our next post.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:32+02:00August 1st, 2014|Entrepreneurship, Marketing|0 Comments

Missile Marketing 3: MCLOS

Being able to manually control a missile to its target has proved to be a huge advantage in the battle field. Looking at the current unrest in the Middle East, we see onside using ‘hope’ rockets just firing in the general direction of a target and the other side using technology where the missile is directed towards a specific building or vehicle. The outcomes are obvious. Once side has a much better success rate and far less collateral damage in the process.

What about your marketing. Can you use MCLOS technology in your campaigns. MCLOS stands for Manual Command to Line Of Sight. Giving you manual control of your marketing as it happens. This allows for minor changes in strategy and direction as your campaigns evolves.

This would exclude any form of printed advert in a newspaper or phone book with very little room for manoeuvre during its life span. It may be able to include handing out of flyers to the right type of people at the right time. Or it could include running online campaigns that you can adjust as you see things change.

But all these, as great as they are, require you to be in control and direct things as they change. It is expensive as well as time consuming. MCLOS requires hands on deck and a real understanding of your market, but gives you the ability to change and adjust as you go along.

Think for a moment how you could add a manual adjustment to your marketing campaigns that you are currently running or will run in the near future and implement this MCLOS strategy. But is there a better way? More in our next post.

By nbmedia|2014-07-30T15:18:07+02:00July 30th, 2014|Entrepreneurship, Marketing|0 Comments

Missile Marketing 2: Hope

So many people run what I call HOPE based marketing. They place adverts online, in the phone book or local newspapers and then sit back and hope that someone reads them and calls with an order.

If you have ever, or currently use the word “hope” in connection with your marketing, you know that you are in trouble. In fact this word should not be used in any association with running a small business. Never hope money will be paid, never hope people will read your adverts, or hope they come to an event.

Turning hope into certain confidence is key to developing a solid marketing strategy that will develop your business into the future.

So our lesson today is: take a look at your business marketing strategy and where you ‘hoping’ that things are going to work, start to change these. In our next post we will begin to discuss more productive ways to target your customers

By nbmedia|2014-07-28T13:16:06+02:00July 28th, 2014|Business Resources, EI Clients, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Doing Business in Africa

This week we attended a workshop presented by the Cape Chamber of Commerce on the challenges of doing business in Africa. Some very interesting speakers were present; here are some snippets of their wisdom:

Identified Risks

Non payment of accounts
Exchange control issues with unstable currencies
Problem and expense of moving people around different regions
Many different staffing regulations
Credit risk insurance
Freight and logistics issues
Labour unrest

Some recommendations

Find quality partners in each region before launching a new venture
Visit places personally, do not do internet meetings
Mitigate risks by investigations and relationships
Cover all your bases with legal contracts and clauses
Build in arbitration and mediation clauses into all contracts
Do not hurry business deals, let them evolve at their own pace
Plan for the worse, hope for the best

Even with all the challenges and risks, Africa remain the most lucrative market on the planet with countries boasting growths in excess of 25%. First one in gets the catch.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:32+02:00July 25th, 2014|Business Resources, EI Clients, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Missile Marketing 1

In military terms there are four ways to fire a missile.

You can aim as well as you can and fire and HOPE that you will hit, or come close to the target. You can use a more sophisticated missile and guide it as it goes using MCLOS or SACLOS or you can use super advanced guidance using FAF technology.

In this series this week, we will use missile targeting to look at four ways that your marketing could be running. Each has lessons that we will chat about.

By nbmedia|2014-07-23T10:48:36+02:00July 23rd, 2014|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

E Bear makes his return

E-Bear has finally made his return to the business. After his initial adventures,detailed on his own Blog, he will merge his future journeys and adventures here to be told as part of the whole EI story.
We look forward to having him share pics with our clients, guests and famous people.
Could this become the newest form of appreciation for Entrepreneurs?

E Bear visited the Shanduka Black Umbrellas Entrepreneurship workshop today.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:32+02:00July 11th, 2014|EI Clients, General|0 Comments

Social media tips week: Get selling

When it comes to social media, you are NOT allowed to sell anywhere other than your own website, unless of course you have paid for the right to do so with FaceBook Ads or Google Ads.

So be careful not to promote your goods as For Sale in the social cloud. A better strategy is to talk about the benefits of your product offering and then provide links to a sales or landing page within the article. You can do this on other websites as well in their comments. But be careful not to offend or ruin a relationship. It could destroy that access point for life.

Selling online is a lot harder than in person, so my strategy has always been to get the person on the phone or in front of me as soon as possible to convert and close the deal. Do not keep a person hanging online by providing them with lots of emails and links with all your product features and pricelists. Chat to them directly and list to their needs, then propose a solution that will satisfy them.

Just to recap the weeks tips: