Posts Tagged ‘Edison House’

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My new blog site is here at www.MichaelAngeloCaruso.com

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

ear to info media upright face rightCongratulations!  You’ve found my new blog site!

All archived posts and future posts can be found on my blog site at www.MichaelAngelCaruso.com.

This new Web site is exciting.  The concept is an ongoing collaborative effort between my office and the great folks at Trademark Productions in Royal Oak.

Dwight Zahringer and company rock when it comes to making the Internet work for clients and it’s always a pleasure working with them.

As you can see, the new site features the (new) old blog, online registration for live events and over 50 of my info products, including books, e-books, audio programs and videos for leaders, salespeople and entrepreneurs.

Think of www.MichaelAngeloCaruso.com as me 2.0!

Linkedin’s best-kept secret

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Every social media platform has a secret weapon. 

The best feature on Facebook is the Notes page where you can promote your company in messages much longer than 140 characters.

Twitter has some amazing apps such as Tweetdeck that put the micro-blogger on steroids.

Linkedin_logo Even the relatively staid Linkedin has a piece of heavy artillery.  It's called "Recommendations." 

In the old days (the 80s, LOL) business people used to request a "letter of recommendation" from satisfied customers.  Now I ask people to post compliments on my Linkedin page.

These types of testimonials are what Robert Cialdini, author of Influence, refers to as "social proof."  Such recommendations, for example make me feel good, but they also make my prospects feel good.  Nothing brings in business like third-party testimonials. 

A client of mine recently posted this kind compliment on my Linkedin page for all to see:

"I had the opportunity to hear Michael speak at a Rotary function several years ago and was so impressed that I invited him to speak at an upcoming Zone meeting for seven Rotary Clubs in Southern Wisconsin.  He had 120 people totally involved while speaking and his ideas for improvement are something we actively use today. I highly recommend Michael Angelo Caruso."     

  -John Stensland, VP, Martin Business Group, Geneva, Wisconsin, via Linkedin

 

Thanks, John! 

If I had written this message about myself, people would think of it as advertising.  But when John posts this message, it's the truth.  That's the beauty of third-party testimonials, such as recommendations on Linkedin.

I'll be interviewing Linkedin expert Dean Delisle on Tuesday, December 1 at 4 PM ET.  He's the President of a company called Forward Progress and a real guru on Linkedin.   

Register at http://budurl.com/UseLinkedin4Biz.

Any salesperson can have this edge over the competition

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

I've developed a powerful and effective way to differentiate themselves from their selling competition by becoming published authors in their area of expertise.  (Actually, it helps a salesperson to be a published author of any stripe!) 

It doesn't matter what you sell or what industry you're in.  I've taught people in the heavily regulated financial services industry to author an e-book and still be within guidelines. 

Do this now.  Creating and marketing information products (seminars, webinars, teleseminars, e-books) will improve your closing ratios better than almost anything you've experienced.

Why is this true?  Because right or wrong, people will treat you better when you are perceived as an author. 

For examples of such info products, visit www.MichaelAngeloCaruso.com

Free selling tip; Good Attitude = More Sales

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

Here's a freebie from my popular 52 Selling Tips.  The tips will arrive via e-mail and you can use to instantly improve your sales.  Sign up today for less than a dollar a week.  

 

Tip #1:

A Good Attitude and Strong Self-Image Will Act As Sales Assistants

52 weekly selling tips WEB A good attitude is important in every job, but attitude is critical for people in the selling profession.  Prospects and customers have come to expect a certain quality of excitement and optimism from salespeople.  A damp personality won

What will your book be about? Whatever the topic, it’ll be pure profit if . . .

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Ever think about writing a book?

An e-book or electronic book, has one of the highest profit margin products in the history of marketing because the author doesn't have any fixed costs.  When you write and sell an e-book, there are:

-  No production costs

-  No inventory costs

-  No printing costs

-  No delivery costs

-  No returns

-  No cost of goods sold

-  No design costs

-  No advertising costs

-  Almost no barriers to entry

In fact, since the author is essentially selling electrons, whatever price he or she charges for the e-book is almost pure profit.  Yes, the author's time is worth something and there may be a few dollars spent on Internet marketing tools, but for the most part, those expenses are minimal.

Of course, a free market economy and the price of competitive products may dictate some parameters, but information products are generally free of traditional publishing costs and even most marketing expenses.

This is true for many digital information products, including e-books, teleseminars, home study courses, podcasting and anything else you choose to "self-publish."  Here's an example of such a product, an e-book on how to create information products:

http://tinyurl.com/CreateSellInfoProducts

While it is true that the average published book only sell a couple thousand copies.  A $10 e-book that sells 100 copies nets the author a cool grand–pure profit, less the time it takes to write it.

What will your book be about?

How much would you pay for more self-esteem?

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Feeling good is important enough to spend money on it.  In fact, we do.

Self esteem shop WEB New clothes, a clean car, hair color and vocational training are just a few of the ways we try to buy a strong self-concept. 

And there's a store in Royal Oak, Michigan that actually sells self-esteem.  The Self Esteem Shop (248-549-9900), located at 32839 Woodward Avenue, sells books, audio programs and various signage that promote feelings of self-worth.

Many people think nothing of spending money on liquor, tattoos and gambling–purchases that give little long-term return-on-investment. 

But what if you could go to a store, browse through some shelves and pay for more self-esteem?  What exactly would you purchase?  How much would you be willing to pay in order to feel better about yourself?  Would you make one such trip a year, or make weekly visits?

 

4 easy ways to grow your business with Twitter

Friday, July 17th, 2009

It's happening right in front of your eyes.  Twitter is being adopted by major businesses.  The speed of this development is nothing short of astounding.  Here's a short list of first-adopters: 

BBC http://twitter.com/BBC

British Airways http://twitter.com/BritishAirways

Delta http://twitter.com/deltaairlines

Honda http://twitter.com/Alicia_at_Honda

Vodafone Germany http://twitter.com/Vodafone_de

Here are four grea ideas for using Twitter at your company.

1.  Monitor Customer Buzz  — Sometimes businesses are the last to hear bad news from their customers.  Twitter allows you to listen to these conversations through various tools that allow to monitor online conversations. The easiest starting point is Twitter search to search for conversations that include a certain brand name.  Just open Twitter search, type in your brand name and tap into the conversation.  Monitter.com allows to monitor three keywords.

2.  Proactive customer service — Negative word-of-mouth can kill your business.  To track trash talk from customers, setup Twitter monitors for your brand or products and then be ready to defend yourself when a customer complains.

3.  Hiring employees –  Twitter can be used to find potential employees.  I've read that Research In Motion, the company that develops the BlackBerry smartphone, has recently started to actively recruit employees via Twitter.  Simply message "twits" who seem like they might be interested in what you offer.  If they're not interested, they might know someone who is.  Be careful to not cast too wide a net or you'll be spending too much time with unqualified candidates. 

4.  Customer feedback –  Use Twitter to collect instant feedback about your products and services.   Invite customers to give feedback through a web-based survey tool like SurveyMonkey or Google Docs Forms to keep the feedback private, but still instant.

Bad customer service is bad for business

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

No one has trouble coming up with bad examples of customer service.

Here's mine . . .  I had a problem with my car and decided to try a new mechanic.  The company gave me eleven reasons to not come back.

The gentleman handling the front desk didn't seem particularly glad to see me (1), which is surprising because new customers can be hard to come by these days.  He didn't smile (2), thank me for coming in (3) or to establish any sort of positive expectation (4).

I had to leave the vehicle at the garage, but my new vendor didn't tell me when he would contact me with a repair plan until prompted (5).  

He said would call me before noon, but I didn't hear from him until 2 PM (6). I expected to receive details of the problem, a recommended course of action and a request for repair authorization, but didn't learn any of these details (7-9).  Instead, the representative told me he had already fixed it. 

The dollar amount of the repair was only in the $50 dollar range, but I was prepared to pay more (10).

I was happy with the inexpensive fix, but because of all the missed cues I had lingering doubts about whether he knew what he was doing (11). 

The "safety check" section of the invoice listed some specific recommendations, i.e., transmission flush, battery replacement.  He didn't go over any of these safety issues with me verbally and of course, I didn't take time to read the fine print at the service counter. 

Here's my point– the guy did all the hard stuff correctly.  He properly diagnosed the problem and fixed it.

It's the easy stuff he messed up, like communication and dialog–the essence of customer service.  Granted, I'm a little sensitive about being treated badly because I teach customer service, but it seems like the situation is getting worse all the time.

What's your recent example of poor customer service?

Welcome to EdisonHouse.com

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

Quick promo vid for my site.

http://www.youtube.com/v/PY2BIfG28Kk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param

To get business, sometimes you have to “salt the tip jar”

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

My brother Dave is a talented musician who stars in a very entertaining show called, "Piano Wars."

In Dave's line of work, there's an an entertainment custom known as the "tip jar."  To get this done, Dave merely tucks of few of his own dollars inside the glass container on top of his piano.  Audience members see the tip jar, take their cue and Dave makes a couple hundred extra dollars every night. 

Here's the important part of the process.  This idea works much better if Dave tucks a few of his own dollar bills in the container prior starting the gig.  The process is known as "salting the tip jar."

Bakers have a similar concept they call "starter dough," which again makes dough (get it?).  

Here are some clever ways to salt the tip jar at your company:

-  Collect testimonials from satisfied customers and make them available on your Web site, your company Facebook page and Linkedin

-  Have various employees write short articles on aspects of your business and post these pieces on Web sites such as your company page and EzineArticles.com.

-  Encourage your employees to speak at trade shows on their subject of expertise.  They'll probably receive free registration and audiences will perceive them as industry experts.

-  Hold seminars and make sure the room is sprinkled with happy clients and vendors in order to effectively salt the tip jar.

If you use a Jewish speaker for these events, you're using Kosher salt.  Use me and you'll get Italian seasoning.  It's all good! 

When you salt the tip jar, your company will make more money, faster.

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