This week we presented an inspiring talk on how to create a functional sales funnel and pipeline into your business that will feed constant customers and cash into your business.
The talk was graphically narrated by Colin Horner. Thanks, Colin for the pic.
Listen to the whole talk here:
Next week we bring our focus on Internal processes.
Join us on Wednesday at 12:00 Noon: https://zoom.us/j/723567165
Come and join your fellow members at our monthly Coffee Club event with Colin Hall as guest speaker. Colin will share his experience of 60 years of business and professional knowledge from a deep study of history, our own African heritage, nature and science.
Speaker bio:
Colin Hall earned his honours degree in Law from Pretoria University. He was a corporate man for 60 years, serving on many company boards. On that journey, Colin’s passion became people – as individuals, in teams and as part of society. He visited the Covey Institute in Utah where he acquired the rights to Covey’s work and introduced the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” to South Africa.
Since 1992, Colin has conducted programs that are changing corporate culture. Through the “Learning to Lead” program, he hopes to create a new simpler picture of leadership relevant to the Quantum Age and appropriate to South Africa and Africa.
The Coffee Club provides guests with the ideal opportunity to meet fellow members, make valuable new connections and informally network while enjoying breakfast.
Event Details: Date: Tuesday, 06 March 2018 Venue: Southern Sun Cape Sun 23 Strand Street Cape Town
Time:07:45 for 08:00-10:00 Cost P/P: Members: Free Non-members: R100
Register Now: Register now Or call at Linda Roopen 021 402 4300
One of the key functions of a successful engaging marketing campaign is a well-defined customer or target profile. In this week’s webinar, we unpack this a little and begin to look at the various tools on social media that make this process a little easier.
As we see social media, in particular, FaceBook, mature in this aspect, we will need to understand and access these tools to add to our business intelligence processes to maximise the access to market using these tools.
We plan to unpack these tools in more detail in order to assist both ourselves and our clients to gain the advantage in our marketing profiles. If you want to be on the list of attendees for such a workshop, then please contact us and we will schedule you for the next available programme.
Marketing seems to be on everyone’s lips as we start 2018. This is because of the assumption of “if you do marketing, you will get money”. But this is not always true.
Marketing is no longer an academic exercise of numbers and shuffling people through a predefined sales process in order to scoop up a percentage of sales.
Marketing today is all about developing profitable relationships. Relationships with contacts, customers and suppliers and then creating a strategic process to ensure every person within the system is handled with care and appreciation in order to develop high levels of trust: very different to the old numbers game.
Our current series of Weekly Wednesday Webinars at One covers different aspects of marketing as we take time to unpack the theory as well as some examples and implementation of the ideas.
The first master class covered the Sales Cycle:
We followed this up with a look at the new functional, trust developing sales funnel:
This week we unpack some of these in practical examples in discussion with those online at the time. Join us on Wednesday at one: https://zoom.us/j/9071494212
As we continue this series of Intellectual Property, today we look at the registrations of designs. This has to be one of the tricky ones, as it seems to be vague at best as to what can be registered and how it is registered. So let’s unpack some of the details:
A registered design can either be for aesthetics or for function.
The aesthetics design are granted for the appearance as seen by the eye: colour, shape and pattern. This covers items such as a new shape of the vase or a chair design with a high back and long flowing armrests. The form (shape) and colours are both covered in the aesthetic design. This can be registered and will give you protection for 15 years.
The function design covers the features that are described by the function of the item: the movement and working parts of a product. This includes items such as a lock mechanism, a clutch pencil or a window opener. A functional design once registered will give you cover for 10 years.
Both these forms of IP give you the protection from others being able to copy or use the registered designs without your permission. The obvious question is how closely do they have to copy your item for it to be an infringement? This is the big issue and comes down to the way your design is described in the registration. Your application should be well written by a legal professional with experience in design registrations and include drawings, cad designs, photos and 3D renders of the product.
All registered designs need to be filed in the country that you require protection in. This obviously raises the cost of registration and should be considered carefully when applying to balance the cost to reward for your required protection.
We have a team on hand to assist you with this process and to answer any questions you may have about your new invention. Do not get caught without the required protection, it could end up costing you your future income.
Entrepreneurs are often great at the technical things and getting the detail done well. But when it comes to developing that all important online social media brand footprints for both themselves and the developed products…. well let’s just say it needs some work.
We understand Entrepreneur and the issues we face. We also understand Social Media and marketing and how important it is to build a business. So over the next 5 weeks, we will unpack some of the mysteries of the social media platforms and share some secrets that will help automate, improve and deliver awesome content that matters and help you get the right things done right.
The weeks will be split into lessons pertaining to the different platforms. So save the following dates and follow the links to book your spots on the social media webinars and workshops and get yourself added to the mailing list to get the regular blogs on this subject.
30 Aug – Social media introduction – BOOK HERE
6 Sept – LinkedIn – BOOK HERE
13 Sept – Blogging – BOOK HERE
20 Sept – FaceBook – BOOK HERE
27 Sept – YouTube – BOOK HERE
By the end of September, you could have all this social media stuff for you and your business sorted, mostly automated and geared up to start building your business.
Over the last 2 months, we have dissected and digested the methodology of storytelling in a business. Through this process, we have created a deck of story cards that are used in our workshops and can be used together with our workbooks and business strategy worksheets to develop a fully functional and sustainable business plan.
We also unpacked the joy of telling marketing stories and making what is traditionally boring stories come to life and invoke emotion and intrigue leading to better referrals and a wider online footprint for your business.
Please review the last of these webinars (just 28 minutes) in the video below and follow the links to the other webinars on our community page in the series if you missed them:
Narrative business strategy workshops are run at our venue in Woodstock, Cape Town or online via Skype or Expertise. We deal with helping business owners develop a narrative approach to their business development and planning as well as create well defined functional sales funnel and marketing strategy. Through this process, we work through our business development roadmap and identify gaps, assumptions and develop a risk mitigation strategy as we go.
If you are interested in starting or growing a business then please give us a call or complete the form HERE and we will be in contact with you.
Growth happens outside your comfort zone. Let me say that again, growth happens outside your comfort zone. That means two things, you need to get outside your comfort zone to grow and you need to learn how to rely on others.
In this video we talk about developing your business through strategic marketing activities. Take a listen and list some ideas that may pertain to your business. Here are some suggestions:
Create a working social media campaign with links, reposts and posting calendars
Develop and implement a referral farm
Identify and implement a working sales funnel to attract and convert customers
Develop a method to up-sell or re-sell to existing customers
Build a solid ongoing, repeatable marketing strategy
It is crucial for every business owner to realize the importance of nurturing relationships with clients. Not only do these people provide the revenue coming into the business but there also is a great feeling that comes with contributing to the success and happiness of your clients.
Part of growing a successful business is caring for your customers. Realize that we are in times where an unhappy client can share their opinion with the masses through social media and that can negatively affect your business. That’s why it’s even more important than ever to create an excellent experience for your customers to help develop your company’s relationship with them into love.
So, how would you know whether your clients are happy or not? Well, you would not know unless they or someone lets you know, right? You need to interact with them and review their feedback very often.
Below are 3 tips on how to make your clients happy.
1. Always listen to your clients.
When you have a conversation with your clients, it’s important to truly listen and take into account what changes your business should make from the feedback you will be getting, and then follow through.
2. Respect your clients and their views.
It’s very important to be respectful of a customer’s mood when trying to resolve an issue they have with your company. Keeping your patience is key to giving your customer the time to air out their issue. Don’t come on too strong even if they are wrong.
3. Talk to your clients genuinely
Don’t act as a nameless or faceless business; genuinely talk with your clients as a person representing the business. Address your customers by name, and tell them your name at the very beginning of your interaction.
Remember that a happy client normally tells 4 to 6 people about your company and its customer service. So, making your clients happy is another way to significantly influence the word of mouth about your business.
When you go into business, you need to ensure you build a unique and profitable brand market. Market your brand effectively and have online presence. Online presence is important for a business to grow.
Here are the 4 pillars of growing your business online:
1. Website
Have a great website. A great website should be able to convert browsers into buyers. It must connect to your audience instantly and build a relationship with them.
2. Marketing
Marketing is about bringing and sharing your services with the right audience. Your product will remain unknown and useless if you don’t market it properly, so market it!
3. Communication plan
Have a clear and effective communication plan. Videos, blogs, newsletters and emails will bring a steady stream of traffic your way. Communicate what you offer in a way that will make your audience say “I got to have that now!” Every business online needs to get traffic to it’s site, but profitable traffic is the most important.
4. Social Networks
Another way of increasing your online presence is to go the the social media route. Run ads through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or other ad networks. Many businesses have done very well on these social network platforms.
