Archive for Product Launch
I am reading this before my next webinar, are you?
Posted by: | CommentsWhether he’s introducing the new iPhone or delivering a keynote presentation, Steve Jobs electrifies audiences with his incomparable style and showmanship. He doesn’t just convey information in his presentations; he tells a story, paints a picture, and shares a vision. He gives his audience a transformative experience that is unique, inspiring, and unforgettable.
Now you can do it too, by learning the specific techniques that have made Jobs the most captivating communicator on the world stage. Using Jobs’s legendary presentations as a blueprint, communication-skills coach Carmine Gallo has mapped out a ready-to-use framework of presentation secrets to help you plan, deliver, and refine the best presentation of your life.
Yo
u’ll learn how to:
- Create an inspiring brand story
- Answer the one question that matters most
- Paint a specific, memorable, and consistent vision
- Make numbers meaningful
- Deliver unforgettable moments
- Build visually engaging slides
- Master stage presence
- Make it look effortless
- Rehearse effectively
- Have fun
Read a Free Chapter courtesy of McGraw-Hill-Hill
Just Buy-it: The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience
My Next Webinar: Value Stream Marketing Webinar
Related Posts:
Six Tips for Remote Presenting – Nancy Duarte
The Disney Way
Using DMAIC for your A3 Report in the Lean Marketing House
Lean Six Sigma Storyboard
Affiliate Marketing an easy way to make money – Fact or Fiction
Posted by: | CommentsWhat prompted this post was a blog post on American Express Open Forum by Chris Brogan. Chris is one of my favorite bloggers and someone that I have always held in very high esteem. However, when I read his post it left me the impression that he made Affiliate Marketing seem like an easy way to make money. He throws out the estimated numbers in 2009 for affiliate marketing of 13 billion. Heck at 13 billion, anyone can get a piece of that pie or can they?
I left a short comment on the post that I would like to expand on. As a disclaimer, I would like to mention that I make money on affiliate sales and have set up a few clients with affiliate programs. There is also affiliate links sprinkled through my website so be careful.
That all important Affiliate Link, that code that you get that is embedded in your links, banners, skyscrapers and anything else that will accept a hyperlink. All you have to do is embed it and people will click on it and you make money or do you.
Most links will register a client’s computer by embedding a cookie on to their computer. So what happens when a client cleans his cookies? What happens if he sees and discovers the product and investigates just enough before he clicks through and then searches for the site? And the one that is just about always the case is if you’re in B2B sales, how often does the purchase occur on the computer that was registered. Do you think the purchasing agent ask the requester whose site they found the product on? Do you think the requester even mentions it?
However, when your prospect is registered, what happens next? First there is typically a minimum payout and a time limit on how long the cookies last. Did you know most cookies expire in less than 90 days? Did you know that there may be a minimum threshold before sales are paid out? The thinking behind that is that you will have the highest registration in the initial 90 days and the least conversion. Meaning the affiliate resource gets the e-mail address to forever market too for a very limited if any cost.
The 13 billion dollar mark has spawned a highly competitive market for handling the affiliate resources account. There are some great ones out there and I am only here to discuss one thing. What happens when your affiliate resource switches suppliers? That’s right, your cookies all disappear and you have to re-register all of your prospects again. It also means you have to change all your links that you have created to the new one.
Read the fine print well, if there is any. I have been told that half my affiliate sales were non-commissionable because the people that clicked through my site were commissioned and they could not pay out commission to both of us.
This is my favorite bug-a-boo. I drive people to a site, they register and I now have a good solid lead. My affiliate resource starts sending him his auto-responder to sell the product therefore doing all the work. Hmm, work = auto-responder? He may convert a few, maybe not, but then what happens is that a new wave of auto-responders start being sent; selling my affiliate resource’s, affiliates! That’s right, my resource tries to move him into one of his affiliates and guess what, you don’t get to participate in this sale. No way, no how!
So now let’s get to the real skivvy, RUN THE NUMBERS! Nobody is going to tell you this but think about how many impressions you have to make to get a click-thru. Than how many leads turn into sales and then your payout. The truth is seldom is it better than direct mail numbers of 1 to 3%. So picking 2%, (and that is very high on impressions to leads) if you have 10,000 impressions that is 200 leads and as a result 2 sales. If you make, $50 a sale that is $100 for your efforts. If you can accomplish, I would bet that you are doing better than 95% of the affiliates out there. So, look at two things: 
How much traffic does your website get or how big is your e-zine list? For the sake of explanation, let’s say my numbers above our correct. Are you willing to give up that number of leads to someone else for a $100.
Affiliate Marketing is not an easy way to make a living. You can participate in launches, book offerings and other affiliate efforts that could increase the odds of success and prove more successful. There are some great and I mean great partnership, coaching and program structures that could prove very lucrative for you. But if you are just looking for a cookie, in my opinion most would be better served in the hole they came from. What are your thoughts?
Are you thinking about Lean this year?
Posted by: | CommentsHere is a question I asked Jim Lewis, author of the Story of a Lean Journey
Joe: Now you’ve talked a lot about the benefits someone can get from Lean by doing it, but how tough is it to achieve? I mean, is it doable? Is it doable in three months? Six months? I could be out of business in six months. Is it something that really can be done in the short term, or is it something that takes a long time?
Jim: Yes to both of those. And let me explain that. Lean is a journey. You’re transforming your business from wherever it is today to a new way of doing business.
It is a journey. Another reason for using an outside person is because usually internal resources don’t have a full comprehension, unless they are Lean experts themselves, they don’t have a full comprehension of the commitment that’s necessary in order to make this journey, and they really don’t know how this journey is going to unfold.
There’s an 80/20 rule that applies to anything and everything, and it applies to Lean as well. The transformation process is not complete until it becomes self?sustainable, where you forget what the old was. You can’t even remember what the old was.
I mention that in my book, once the transformation reaches that point where you can no longer remember what the old way was, then you are well on your way to a successful journey. And that takes probably three to five years before the process becomes the new norm ? the Lean now is the new norm.
Businesses have been doing business the way they have for years, since the Industrial Revolution of the 1850s. So we’ve been ingrained in us this ‘batch ‘ mentality of doing business for so long that it takes a long time to change the culture. And that’s what you’re doing, you’re changing the culture in the organization, and so that takes three to five years.
But the 80?20rule applies to that. You will get immediate results from a Lean Initiative, from day one. As soon as you begin to implement, you get positive results. I usually work with a company, either full?time or part-time depending on the organization for six to eight months.
From day one, I’m weaning myself away from the organization because I don’t want them totally dependent on me. I want them to be able to begin to take ownership and responsibility for the transformation themselves. I’ll usually find a key individual in the organization who I can work with closely, who’s going to take over the mantle as I leave.
That person will take the mantle of responsibility for ensuring that the transformation process continues to move forward until the entire culture is changed.
It’s not just changing the culture of the workers in the organization. The management, the leadership of the organization has to change their culture as well. They’re no longer task managers. They’re going to work in a collaborative way. I’m not talking about self?managed work teams. I’m talking about working with people in a collaborative way, and problem solving, and soliciting input and ideas, and suggestions and recommendations.
Empowering is another one of the E’s. It’s empowering the staff to be able to make change happen in their area of control. Managers are going to be relinquishing some control in that transformation process, where they go to a team?based activity versus a traditional, task?managed operation.
It does take a long time, but the results are immediate. If you can get through that cultural shift change and have a sustainable operation, then Lean becomes the new norm, and you forget where you were.
Related Information:
