Marketing Psychology – Integrated Marketing Communication

Guest Blogger Post: Five Tips to Becoming a Better Listener

November 11th, 2011 | Posted in Marketing Communication Strategy by Larina Kase

By Guest Blogger Jacqueline Whitmore

The former talk show host Larry King once said, “Here’s what I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.” Communication experts consider good listening an even greater accomplishment than speaking well. Personally, I think that listening well takes a lot more energy than talking.

If you’re on a first date with someone special or on a job interview with a prospective employer and you really want to impress this person, chances are you’ll do everything in your power to appear interested and connected. You’ll ask the right questions and pay attention to the answers as if your life depended on it.

When it comes to listening you’ll want to offer your clients, customers, and coworkers the highest compliment that exists: your undivided attention. Here are five tips to help you become a better listener.

1. Listen with Your Whole Self: Maintain eye contact without staring or glaring. Concentrate on the speaker and lean slightly forward to communicate that you are open to what is being said. Nod, smile, or ask a relevant question if you need clarification. This way, you send a nonverbal message that you are “in the moment” and fully involved in the conversation.

2. Put Your Best Face Forward and Smile: A warm, genuine smile is the most beautiful curve on the human body. Your friendly expression says, “I’m approachable and interested,” and it can immediately put others at ease.

3. Open Up and Relax: When we feel uncomfortable or threatened, we have a tendency to “fold up.” We cross our arms, legs, or ankles. We might shift in our seat, put our hands in our pockets, or even angle our body away from others. These behaviors in effect “disconnect” or close you off from the person who is speaking.

4. Become Aware of Nervous Gestures: It’s natural to feel tense in certain situations, but if you want to socialize and meet people you should try to conceal your nervousness as best you can. Common signs of unease include fussing with your hair, jewelry, or clothing, adjusting your tie, clearing your throat every few minutes, repeatedly clicking a ballpoint pen, wiggling your foot, picking at your cuticles, and (gasp) biting your fingernails in public.

5. Ask Questions: People perk up when we demonstrate a focused and sincere interest in them and their story. I was once taught that the two most powerful words when starting a conversation are, “Tell me.” “Tell me, what is it you enjoy most about mountain climbing?” “Tell me, what are some of your favorite foods?” “Tell me, what are some of your favorite holiday memories?” If you take an active interest in the lives of those around you, people will remember and appreciate you for making the effort.

Jacqueline Whitmore is a certified etiquette expert and the author of POISED FOR SUCCESS (St. Martin’s Press, Nov. 2011). Her advice is sought by numerous publications including The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and O, The Oprah Magazine. She has appeared as a guest on 20/20, CNN, FOX News, and Anderson Cooper’s AC360°. For more information, visit her website at www.etiquetteexpert.com.

Email This Post | Print This Post | 1,773 views | No Comments »

Take the Quiz- What Keeps You from Converting Contacts into Clients?

October 13th, 2011 | Posted in Get More Clients by Larina Kase

See which of the top 3 challenges with relationship marketing keeps you from attracting more clients. Answer each of these 12 with yes or no:

Key #1 Initiating the Right Relationships

1. I’m not confident with initiating conversations with new business contacts.
2. I find it challenging to know with whom to initiate business relationships.
3. I am fairly good at connecting but the people I select don’t seem to be the best (i.e., they do not refer to me.)
4. I’m not completely confident with introducing myself and describing what I do.

Key #2 Following Up and Keeping in Touch

5. I get so busy and scattered that I do not follow-up with people after I connect with them.
6. I do not have an excellent keep-in-touch marketing system in place.
7. I do not have excellent valuable content to provide at least once per month as follow-up.
8. I struggle with how to keep-in-touch without feeling salesy or pushy.

Key #3 Turning Contacts into Clients

9. I have a lot of contacts but not a lot of referral sources and clients.
10. I find it challenging to ask for business.
11. I tell myself that people will buy or refer when they are ready (but realize this may be an excuse so I don’t have to “sell”)
12. I am not comfortable with describing my fees or “selling” my services.
Scoring

1 or more “Yes” in any category indicates challenge with that particular category. This means that you may be putting in effort but not getting the results you want.

Some people are great with making connections but struggle with key #3, so they have a lot of friends but not a lot of business. Others find it difficult to initiate new business relationships. And others find that they are great at initiating new contacts but get busy and drop the ball on following through.

The good news is that all of these challenges can be mastered. When you have each of these 3 keys the process of building the relationships that build your business is fun and easy.

Learn more about how to improve any or all of these three keys to relationship marketing with my new book:

Clients, Clients, and More Clients: Create an Endless Stream of New Business with the Power of Psychology

When you get your copy, enter your receipt # on the bottom of the page http://www.TruthAboutMarketingEvent.com and you’ll get all of the audios of the expert interviews.

Email This Post | Print This Post | 1,394 views | No Comments »

If You Can Make Lists You Can Come Up with Great New Ideas

August 25th, 2011 | Posted in Marketing Communication Strategy by Larina Kase

Our success as business owners rests on our ability to come up with unique new ideas. I just finished reading a powerful ebook I just called List-Making as Tool of Thought Leadership (you can download it for free) and found the list-making technique very helpful.

Here is an excerpt, reprinted with permission from the author Mark Levy:

List-making for Ideation in a Nutshell

Next time you need new ideas, first consider your topic by making a list. Don’t make just one lone random list, though. No single list could give you a suitable view.

You want to look at your topic in a way that’s broad and, in a sense, disorienting. You want your topic to seem foreign to you, so as you study it, surprises, insights, and novel ideas emerge without much effort.

Instead of one list, create five-to-fifteen lists — each with its own focus. These lists would have names like, “What facts come to mind about the topic?,” “What stories come to mind about the topic?,” and “In what ways can I reframe the topic?”

Spread the lists out on a table, look from list to list and item to item, and ask yourself questions, like “What’s obvious here?” and “What’s surprising?”

Based on your questions and close study, what will happen?

Human beings are meaning-making machines. In a matter of moments, you’ll find yourself making unexpected connections and seeing unpredicted patterns. New meaning will appear to you, because of the curious vantage point afforded by the lists.

You can then turn your latest ideas into “thought chunks,” which you can expand into products and services that support your thought leadership.

(end excerpt)

Read the ebook, try it out, and let me know how it goes!

Email This Post | Print This Post | 1,949 views | No Comments »

5 Simple, Fun, Profitable Joint Ventures

August 9th, 2011 | Posted in Joint Venture Partnership by Larina Kase

I adore joint ventures (JVs). What’s a JV?

It is simply partnering with someone in a synergistic way—where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

You know you have a synergistic opportunity when you find someone with the same philosophy and complimentary skills, services, or offerings.

Your ideal JV is the same as you in the big picture and different than you on the specifics.

You can use joint ventures (JVs) to:

- Build your mailing list or social media following

- Offer a new service

- Provide your services in a new way

- Create a new product

- Promote each other’s products and services

- And much, much more

Here are 5 ideas for simple joint ventures you can do right away:

1) Interview your JV partner. You both share the interview and get exposure in front of your new audiences.

2) Offer a live training call. Fill your marketing funnel with new prospects by co-hosting a live call with your JV partner. It’s a great way to get closer to your audience and in front of a new audience (and it’s so much more fun than doing it on your own.)

3) Co-host a webinar. This is similar to the one before but you use a webinar format, and you may decide to charge for the training, especially if it offers very specific value.

4) Do a live-event. Maybe it’s a one-day workshop in a hotel conference room or a two-day retreat out in the country.

5) Become a mini-mastermind. You coach your JV partner and s/he coaches you. Set up weekly calls and “office hours”. You can, of course, create a larger mastermind group, but a mini-mastermind is a nice way to get highly focused feedback from someone you trust.

Other ways you’ve enjoyed using joint ventures? I’d love to hear your ideas…

Tagged joint ventures, simple joint venture ideas
Email This Post | Print This Post | 1,404 views | No Comments »

Are You Using Your Strengths to Build Your Business?

August 5th, 2011 | Posted in Entrepreneur Characteristics, Marketing Personality by Larina Kase

Sometimes we get so focused on what we could be doing to market our businesses, or what we should be doing to market that we neglect one very important thing…

Our strengths.

Our strengths are:

- What we’re good at.
- What we naturally enjoy.
- What we find effortless and easy.

You, see, effective marketing can and really should be all of these things. This picture is my 2 year old painting. Art is a natural strength for him- it comes easily to him, he’s talented at it, and he loves it .

What did you love when you were little (before all the self-censoring and self-criticism got in the way)?

How can you use that in your marketing communications?

If my 2 year old were a business owner I’d encourage him to come up with creative marketing ideas, to use art and visual imagery to communicate, to be playful and messy (you don’t need to be perfect), and to focus on the process rather than the results. Focusing on results can increase a sense of pressure and make you feel and come across as too salesy.

Using your strengths develops your marketing personality. This helps you be more relatable, real, interesting, memorable– and makes people more interested in working with you (because of your unique strengths).

Take some time today to reflect on your strengths. Write them down. Circle a couple. Brainstorm how you can use them in your marketing communications. You’ll find that the process becomes much more fun, unique, and authentic (and the results will be better too!).

Tagged build your business, effective marketing, marketing communications
Email This Post | Print This Post | 1,354 views | No Comments »

Three Effortless Ways You Can Avoid Clamming Up When You Sell – Guest Blogger Post

July 28th, 2011 | Posted in Uncategorized by Larina Kase

Selling is a conversation, right? You start conversations all the time, so why clam up when the person next to you is a potential buyer? Or why drop the ball when your social media efforts are creating interest?

Unfortunately, this is a common problem for most people, because we don’t understand how the buyer’s mind works. If we did understand the psychology behind decision-making, we wouldn’t be so quick to clam up.

In fact, we would discover when we listen to our customers instead of our internal dialog; they will tell us exactly why they are struggling to make a decision to do business with us. When we understand what they need to know, we have the power to do something about it. That usually brings about a positive resolution and results in a sale!

Sales and selling is simply a conversation. The most important thing is that you feel normal and natural while speaking with your customers. When you are confident during a sales conversation with your customer, it fills them with confidence in you!

Here are 3 quick tips you can use to avoid clamming up.

1. Write an affirmation or mantra about why your mission is important to you. Say it to yourself before you start any sales conversation.

2. Make a list of the top 3 benefits your customers’ get from buying your product or service. Post it where you can see it. Refer back to it to remind yourself you are sharing that benefit with your customer.

3. Take a couple of deep breaths when you feel your jaw tightening and make yourself fully present. Refocus your attention on your customer and that will quiet the internal dialog.

Too many brilliant and talented people trip over sales conversations and clam up when they could be helping their client– it’s one of the reasons I wrote my new book, The Effortless Yes! Get The Sales You Want & Make All You’ll Ever Need. To prove this is something anyone can easily overcome, I have asked Larina to join me on July 28th as a guest expert on The Effortless Yes! Sales Success Summit. When you know the truth about what you customer is thinking, you won’t ever clam up again.
http://wwweffortlesssalessummit.com

——–

About the Guest Blogger: Julie Steelman’s former clients read like a Who’s Who of big-name corporate giants with Apple, Microsoft, Toyota, CBS, Sony Studios and Universal Pictures in her rolodex. She generated more than $100+ million in sales during her 30-year sales career. Julie is known as The Entrepreneur’s Selling Mentor, and her heart-centered selling strategies make her the go-to guru for entrepreneurial business owners who want to master the art of selling and maximize their bankability. http://www.JulieSteelman.com

Email This Post | Print This Post | 2,755 views | No Comments »

5 Ways to Stand Out at Networking Events

July 15th, 2011 | Posted in How to Network by Larina Kase

I’m often asked if networking is a waste of time.

My answer: It depends. Networking can be the single most important thing that you do to build your business, but it’s also one of the most time-intensive activities. And sometimes you have to pay for networking (whereas most strategies I recommend are free or pay you).

The primary considerations in determining whether networking is worthwhile are:

- We who will be there?

- Will you stand out?

Let’s address the second part today: How you can stand out.

As you know, first impressions are critical. When you stand out in the crowd, your status is elevated, you attract people to you, and you begin relationships in the way that ultimately increases the likelihood of people buying from you, hiring you, and refering to you.

Here are 5 simple ways to ensure that you stand out:

1. Be the host. Imagine that you go to a dinner party– Who is the most important person in the room? The host. Host your own networking events or offer to host existing functions.

2. Be the speaker. Whenever possible seek to be the speaker (if you dread public speaking you can find resources on my other blog. You will get all the benefits of networking plus elevated status and an opportunity to share your ideas and make a powerful connection with people.

3. Be the supermodel. Okay, you don’t have to be 6 feet tall and skinny, but think of it like this: You’re at the grocery store and a supermodel-type walks down the aisle. What happens? Everyone stares. Yes, this is in large part because of her natural attributes, but a supermodel in sweats would not attract the same attention as a photo-shoot-ready supermodel.

So, there is a lot we can control: Your style, the colors that you wear, how well your clothes fit and how flatttering they are, your hair, and for women makeup. Amp up your personal style and you will capture attention and establish your brand.

4. Be the CEO. In coaching CEOs I’ve observed one thing they have in common: confident presence. The best way to establish confident presence is through your body language (like in the photo above): stand tall, shoulders back, open posture, eye contact, smile (for emphasis, not continuously)…Some people don’t feel confident enough to show this body language but it actually works in reverse: Do these things and you will automatically feel more confident. And you’ll get great results which will also increase your confidence.

Also remember the things not to do: fidget, sway or shift your weight repeatedly, jiggle change in your pocket, tap your foot, scan around the room (there are studies that show visual scanning increases anxiety).

5. Be the connector. Instead of thinking about who you want to meet, think of who others want to meet. Connect them. Your perception will shift from one of being a networking (perceived as wanting something from others) to being a valuable resource.

Connecting people also elevates your status because we evaluate people based on who they know. Have you ever heard how a woman’s perception of a man’s attractiveness is influenced by the attractiveness of his ex-girlfriend? It’s the “birds of a feather flock together” principle. And due to the Law of Reciprocity, people will give back and connect *you* with great people.

Anyone can be these 5 things, and they make networking so much more fun and worthwhile. Try it out!

Tagged brand building, business networking, how to network, networking, networking basics, networking confidence, stand out
Email This Post | Print This Post | 1,939 views | No Comments »

Your Business is Like Another Family Member

July 14th, 2011 | Posted in Small Business Goals by Larina Kase

When we bought our 1930s house our realtor said, “Having an old house is like having another family member.” (I’m learning just how true that is with all the repairs needed!) I also realized how much a business is also like another family member…it requires nurturing and leadership, it is exhausting and stressful at times, and it is the most rewarding thing you can do.

Like a new family member, your business goes through a cycle of development. Early on your business needs a lot of your time, energy to get it up and running. As you accrue a loyal following and serve more and more clients your marketing requires less of your effort and other resources.

Here are some stages of development that your business may go through– note that even if you’ve been in business for a while you may be at an earlier stage if you’re in the process of reinvention (something I’m doing right now). So consider the “developmental age” of your business more than the “chronological age”…

Bouncing Baby Business (Infancy)

You’re in the process of creating (or recreating your brand), getting exposure, and setting up systems. The future is exciting and a bit uncertain. You alternate between having a ton of energy and optimism (because of the excitement and stress) and a ton of anxiety and doubt. This is normal.

As humans we have a critical period of attachment which occurs early on (by 9 months), and critical periods for language development and other things. This isn’t to say that things can’t change dramatically later on, but if your business is in infancy, do all that you can to begin on the right foot.

I learned the hard way just how costly it was to try to cut corners early on. On the other hand set things up to be flexible because you don’t have a crystal ball to know exactly how the business will grow.

Growing Big and Strong (Childhood)

As your business grows you may find yourself doing one of two things:

1) Working furiously in your business– This is Michael Gerber’s concept of the problem of working in your business and not on your business. The challenge is that you may not take a step back and lead your business from a strategic perspective. A business based solely on you, which according to Carol Roth, is not a business at all.

2) Working furiously on your business– On the flip side some of us get so into marketing the business (articles, social media, etc.) that we are working for free. Again this is not really a business.

Independent Business (Adolescence)

Two common themes of adolescence are independence and rebellion. If your business is running itself independently you have mastered the tasks of the previous stage.

Now that the honeymoon period has worn off you may find yourself rebelling from your business. You don’t want to be tied down. You don’t want anyone telling you what to do. The key is to determine if this is a normal part of development or if your feelings of rebellion signify the need for a change.

“Mature” Business (Adulthood)

We don’t love to be called “mature” but business love it…They are wise, having learned from years of mistakes. They are fed with steady streams of referrals due to relationships built up over the years.

Where Are You?

And where do you want to be? You may be dying to get to the mature phase so you hustle to get there soon and coast. Or you may dread the mature phase and you’re best fit to build and sell young businesses.

Your business will bring you many trials and tribulations, but love and nurture it and it will become an upstanding member of society….And it will love you back.

Email This Post | Print This Post | 2,338 views | 2 Comments »

3 Ways To Make Your Testimonials More Effective

February 21st, 2011 | Posted in Marketing Psychology General by Larina Kase

Most people incorporate testimonials into their marketing efforts. They can be one of your more powerful influence tools or they can be completely ineffective. The psychological key is similarity—here’s how:

1) The person who wrote it is similar to your target audience. One of the first things that people think when the read testimonials is how much the person who wrote it is like themselves. If I see a testimonial from someone who runs a manufacturing business, I will wonder how much the service provider could help me a speaker and consultant. Include as much information about the person who wrote it (name, business, city, etc.) and a photo so that people can relate to them.

The exception to this is if your testimonials are written by someone with celebrity or expert status. If you had a testimonial from the president people would take notice no matter what. Remember that celebrity status varies from field to field—someone who’s a celebrity to one audience may be unknown to the next audience, which brings us to the next point…

2) The benefit described is similar to the benefit your audience wants. Be sure that your testimonials show similarity of benefits that someone achieved to the benefits your prospective client or referral partner desires and similarity of the situation, demographics, or psychographics.

Divide up your endorsements and use the ones that best fit each audience in different situations, unless your niche market is extremely narrow in which you would use the same for all.

3) The endorsement has emotion. People form impressions and make decisions based on emotion. In communication what is said is not nearly as important as how it is said.

Select testimonials to feature that have a great deal of positive energy. Whenever possible get video and audio testimonials because a live person can convey emotion much better than a written statement can. One technique is to ask people for a testimonial at exactly the time they have received a significant benefit from your work—ideally right after. They will be excited and their emotion will come through.

Use these tips to make your endorsements even more powerful. Let me know how it goes.

And if you’re enjoying this Stand Out! newsletter and have an endorsement I’d really appreciate it. Just hit reply to share it and let us know if we can use your name, business name, photo, and website url.
———-

Tagged endorsements, marketing efforts, testimonials
Email This Post | Print This Post | 2,786 views | 5 Comments »

How To Make Yourself Memorable

January 18th, 2011 | Posted in Self Marketing by Larina Kase

1. Relate yourself to other things. Our memory systems are like filing cabinets. Get into existing files by relating to other things. For example, a financial advisor may say to someone, “You know how a car goes dramatically down in value the minute it drives off a dealer’s lot? I help people figure out when it’s smart to buy a new versus used car and all those other important financial decisions we need to make.”

2. Help people associate your services with themselves. We best remember those things that remind us of ourselves. The area in which you relate to someone may be professional or personal. It may be that you are both avid scuba divers who have recently done the Great Barrier Reef, or you’re both lovers of Tibetan Terriers.

Or it may be something about your services that is similar to theirs. My business associates who I respect and think of often are similar to me in the value they place on research-based marketing principles and anti-guru (“Do this because it worked for me.”) approach.

3. Ask yourself, “what would I remember about me?” Be clear and strategic about how you would stand out from others who your contacts meet with.

4. Go first or last, ideally first. We tend to remember information that was presented first or last the best. Whenever you meet people or present take the opportunity to go first. You might not want to but it will pay off.

5. Package information together. Keep information sorted into small (3-5 piece) chunks. Let’s say that you want to write a blog post about The Top 10 Ways to Be Memorable. Consider breaking your information up into several blog posts to help people remember points 1-3, then 4-7, then 8-10. Better yet, change your topic to The Top 6 Ways to Be Memorable and people will be likely to remember all 6.

Tagged make yourself memorable, making business connections, strategic self marketing
Email This Post | Print This Post | 2,162 views | 5 Comments »

Psychology of Marketing