Jacci Adams

Should I raise my price?  This is a question all entrepreneurs ask themselves.

This mp3 recording is from Success Magazine.  It is Darrin Hardy’s interview with Dan Kennedy.

I highly recommend Success Magazine to every business owner large or small.  Find out more about Dan Kennedy.

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Canton Ohio Open House

Looking for office space or a training room?

Try the new Canton, Ohio facility

Learn more about coworking and the open house …

Did you know you even had one?

Contact 3×4 Consulting to get your score.

Now that we are all familiar with LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, along comes something new:

Pinterest

Check out this Gary Vaynerchuk video to see why Pinterest is going to be the break out site of 2012.

Want to know what your customer and prospects interests are?  See if they are on Pinterest.

Having the same interests could get you in the door and allow you to keep coming back.

Be a part of it!

I belong to AmSpirit a professional networking group and to two local Chambers of Commerce.  There are opportunities in each group where we are able to give a quick commercial and tell what a good referral is.  This is what I hear the majority of the time:

• “Hi, I’m Pete the plumber.  A good referral for me is anyone with pipes.”
•  ”I’m Angie Accountant.  I’m looking for people who need help with their taxes.”

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the generic words “anyone” and “people”, absolutely no one comes to mind.  However, when the plumber says, “A good referral for me is the facilities manager at Get Well Hospital.”, my brain kicks in and causes me to think, “Who do I know at the hospital I could refer this person to?”.  Or, I don’t know anyone at Get Well Hospital, but I do know the Director of Operations at Community General.

It’s even better if you have the name of the person you are trying to get in touch with.  Many of us use Social Networking sites like LinkedIn.  A quick search of our connections and we can see if we know anyone to refer our fellow members to. (

What do you need to do to start asking for and making better connections?

One of the first things you should do is segment your connections into three categories:

1. Connections you already have.  Define who they are, what they have done for you, what you have done for them and how you intend to keep them.
2. Connections you need to have next.  Define who they are, what you want from them, what you can do to attract them and how you intend to connect with them.
3. Connections you want to have in the future.  Define who they are, what you want from them, what you can do to attract them, how you intend to get in front of them and how you intend to connect with them.

In order to get the types of quality referrals you want and make the networking groups you belong to work for you, you’ve got to do a little work yourself.

How To use LinkedIn to Find Prospects and Turn Cold Calls into Warm Calls

1. Click on the Advanced Search Icon in the top right of the screen.

 

2. Type in the industry keyword/title for the people you are trying to reach (Chiropractor,  Radiologist, Realtor, Business Insurance, Sports, Manufacturer)

 

3. Enter the zip code of where you want to be and a mileage radius of where you are willing to go.

 

4. I can go for my first connections, but I want to find out who else is out there.  Maybe start out with your second connections.

 

5. For the 3rd level connections and above it provides a first name and last initial. If you click to get the full name, LinkedIn wants more money.  Here’s where you have to get creative.

 

6. Click on the company website.  Look for the “About Us”.  Now you can find the person you were looking for’s information.  You get all the background you need.

 

7. So, now we can Google the person.

 

8. What do we know now?
1. Where they went to school
2. The business they are associated with
3. How long they’ve been in practice

 

9. So how long did all of this take?  A couple of minutes.

 

10. Now look for the “link”.  What do you have in common with this person?  In the example case who do you know that went to that school, lived in that town, played that sport?

 

11. So now you have what you need to make that initial call because you have something in common.

 

12. You can do this or you can continue to “dial for dollars”.

Find the link.

According to Jeffrey Gitomer – “Social Media is the new cold call.”

Don’t have time to do the research yourself use:

www.oDesk.com

www.fiverr.com

Gary Vaynerchuk author of “Crush It!” and now “The Thank You Economy” shares the importance of using Social Media marketing. The video is an long but well worth your time. It’s OK to skip The Kardashians this one time.

Gary Vaynerchuk delivers the Wow Key Note at the RE/Max 2011 Meeting from My Social Start on Vimeo.

Take the time to view this great talk to understand the impact of Social Media. It is 1:03 mins. long but well worth it.

I read Dear Abby almost every day.  This one made me laugh out loud, especially the signature “Emotionally Abused”, get real!   I couldn’t help but share this.

I have a 13 year old daughter who attends Catholic school, so this really hit home.  This is pretty much her life.  We read the article together and she was OK with everything because she has been raised with these expectations.   She’s the one who did the underlining.  To her that was the most excessive thing.   She knows she’s not going on any car dates before she’s 16, and yes, we will be checking the driver’s license.

So no, I’m not an emotional abuser, looks like I’m only a strict tyrant, and my daughter still loves me.

Business Benefits:

• Help establish brand
• Discuss a product personally
• Pitch products in a more human, two-way method
• Listen to customer opinion
• Answer customers directly
• Gather informal market research
• Garner trust by making businesses appear personal

Personal Benefits:

• Build reputation
• Display your resume
• Find a job
• Share information with like-minded sources
• Establish yourself as an expert
• Showcase your talent, be it in writing, photography, film or broadcasting
• Cull prospecting leads for sales and marketing
• Develop and enhance relationships

An excerpt from Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude

Where does positive attitude come from?

Positive attitude comes from within.

Positive attitude has nothing to do
     with what happens to you.  
It’s what you do with, and how you
     react to, what happens to you.

So what’s the YES! Factor?

Picture in your mind the feeling of crossing the finish line first, or winning a game, or making a big sale, and at the end making some gesture of triumph, like raising your fists in the air and screaming, “YES!”

Can you picture it?  It’s a happy and joyous moment, a winning moment, a positive moment, and that’s why you scream “YES!“  Wouldn’t it be great if every moment of your life was like that?  So, what’s preventing it?  The BIG Answer: YOU!

The reason that YES! is easier to understand than positive is that YES! is an experience that you’ve had many times.  You won the race, got the raise, your team won the game, you landed the client, and you screamed “YES!”

A large part of attitude achievement is the visualization.  It’s easier to visualize YES! that it is to visualize positive.  When something great happens, no one screams, “Positive!”  Everyone screams YES!  That’s the difference.  That’s the YES! Factor.

Want more insight to your attitude, attitude self awareness, action, attributes, achievement, and fulfillment check out Jeffrey’s book here.