Build Business Profits

Below is an email Ken McCarthy sent me and thousands of his closest friends. I have been privileged to attend four System Seminars and one targeted training Ken held for 30 people over a weekend in Miami.  Ken has tremendous experience with the Internet and is closely aligned with leadership. More importantly, Ken is a quality person and has always been focused on providing value.

This is an hour interview and I am the first to admit I have no patience with content of that length. However, this is an exception.  This is a marvelous interview and well worth your time.  Before I  turn this introduction over to Ken I want to mention The System. I am not an affiliate.  This is a sincere endorsement based on my personal experience.

Now here is Ken and you are in for a great show.

Steve Pohlit

________________________________________________

Steve

If you want to learn how to do something, the smartest
thing to do it find someone who’s done it.

Making a billion dollars is pretty lofty goal, but if
you’re interested I know a guy who has done it twice and
is on track to do it a third time.

He’s always worth listening to.

Recently, he was on the Charlie Rose program and
was on fire.

If you want to be prepared for the next ten years,
watch and take notes.

(It will help too if all you want to do it make
a million.)

Enjoy!

http://kenmccarthy.com/blog/?p=131

Ken
Ken McCarthy
The System Seminar

———————————————————————–

I appreciate Ken providing this really great interview

Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance

Steve Pohlit, The Profit Expert

FREE Report:

How To Increase Business Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less

Being on line means you are already using social media sites. The question is should you be using social media as part of your marketing strategy?  My experience in developing business with social media being part of the marketing strategy, confirms that social media is a “must have” part of your marketing strategy.

What Is Social Media?

Social media are locations where people build communities based on interest.  Just like a physical community where there is a wide range of interests and value systems, you will find diversity in sites categorized as social media. Considering the diversity of interests, it is very important  to define the audience you are attracting or your target market.

What Are The Best Social Media Sites For Building Business Revenue and Profits ?

The answer to that question depends on your target audience. For example, if you are an engineering firm, you are more likely to find your target audience on Linked In rather thank on MySpace.  However, since MySpace has over 200 million subscribers, your target audience is likely there as well.  In this example, LinkedIn may be more suitable for finding your target audience near term but MySpace should not be ignored.

We set up profiles for our businesses and our client companies on most major social media sites.  We give each site  the focus warranted by the  target market. When you are attracting targeted prospective customers, you are then working consistent with your profit goals.

Ultimately you must be able to convert that traffic to profitable revenue.  Conversion has nothing to do with social media and everything to do with  follow up systems. In other words, conversion has everything to do with your sales funnel.

The Social Media Funnel

I started using the word cloud to describe the population of people using social media.  I have seen other people use that term as well and feel it is a good description.  Tools within each social media site are used to attract people from the cloud to your group, following, blog, landing page or some other feature specifically associated with your offer. However, drawing people to from the social media cloud  is not the place to begin conversion. That is the place to begin building a relationship.

The Social Media Cloud to Customer Process

There is no one program for bringing  people to your business which is where you have an opportunity to market your offer.  Each social media site operates differently.  We have spent thousand of hours testing various ways to use the major social media sites. We have a very good understanding of what works from the results we achieve.

We also have confirmed that there is significant time involved in setting this up properly and executing the daily tasks required to build and grow an effective network. The time is significant   even with an effective process of in place of focusing on the most efficient tasks and using  the leverage of automation and delegation.  In addition, the landscape is dynamic which means that you must be alert for social media site changes that affect processes in place.

The time and processes required to build and maintain an effective network for attracting targeted people to your conversion cycle from the social media cloud is extensive. If you are intent on doing this yourself then focus your attention on two or three main sites.   Realistically since building a social media network means doing certain tasks daily, focusing on more than two or three sites without an entire department or outsourcing this work is impractical.

The Benefits of Social Media Marketing

The first benefit of social media marketing is that  the cloud is huge so your customers are there.  Next, the more consistent you are in building your network, the easier it becomes to grow your network since there is a viral aspect.  We see evidence of  people building rather large followings and groups and enjoying the esteem that comes with the related popularity. That is certain one valid goal.

Our goal is monetization of the value we offer. We are a business and to remain in business, we must make a profit.  The level of business success is measured by revenue and profit trends. For clients, we hold ourselves accountable for delivering a 100% return on investment in 30 to 90 days.

To be a client you must have a business that has a sales conversion cycle that is already working for a clearly defined target market.  To achieve those results we measure and track all data from the network developed from the cloud all the way through conversion into a sale.  Analysis is key if your focus is making money.

Foundation for Success

I have written articles about this, conducted training about this and led client projects focused on this.  The this I am referring to is build traffic and convert it.  With the numerous social media marketing opportunities, it is easy to take your eye of the ball of sales.  When a customer says I’ll take it, that is a very valuable event. You then are responsible for delivering the value of what the customer has purchased and having in place the right customer service support structure for what you are selling.

If there are weaknesses in what you sell and in your support network,  all the work you do in social media, Internet marketing, PPC, direct mail, direct sales and more is largely wasted. On the flip side of that, if the revenue cycle of your business is solid you will achieve a high return on you marketing dollar investment.

Next

In the next article in this series we will take a closer look at some of the features, benefits and pitfalls of specific social media sites. In the meantime, every day you spend thinking about this or trying to figure it out on your own, is a day where you are not optimizing your sales that are possible with social media. We suggest you get started now.

Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.  Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high.

Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance

Steve Pohlit, The Profit Expert

FREE Report:

How To Increase Business Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less

Recommending a business plans is often a starting point for many advisors and consultants. The challenge is that there are nearly as many recommendations on how to do a plan as their are advisors and consultants.

 The single biggest issue with planning is the horizon. Many suggest a 3-5 year plan. If and when that gets done, the plan sits on the shelf in most cases.

I developed my consulting program  specifically for the purpose of guiding companies on how to achieve extraordinary revenue and profit growth in a short period of time. Clients are taught to think in 12 month chunks and then roll that back to what has to be done this week to achieve it.

When you bring your targets, to what has to happen today, this week, this month that are required to achieve the 12 month goal and hold people accountable for achieving those interim results, amazing things happen. 

In the process of doing this, a company must address what could derail the results. So the point of considering disasters is addressed, but you get there from a different direction. In my experience the top two potential disasters are sudden loss of a key person where there has been little or no backup planning and a company relying a great deal on one or a small number of customers for most of their business.  

Exceptions:

Most of the time companies need to think in terms of how what is being accomplished today moves them closer to the goals they have established for twelve months out. In fact most of my work has been to show companies how to install and implement this discipline along with supporting processes of accountability. 

There are some situations when longer term planning is required. These include companies where capital spending for equipment and possibly additional facilities is important. For the majority of businesses, negotiating financing or buying a company will require three to five year plans.  Lenders will insist on it. While on that topic, there is always money for a good deal…always.

Summary:

Most of the time a business plan should be what you are intending for all in the business to be accomplishing in a reasonalbe time period. Again I usually think in terms of about a year and that year is always rolling. There must be some provision in the case of a sudden loss that would have a major impact.

As for the plan itself, I have  found  most companies do not challenge themselves to achieve their potential. Often the discussion is along the lines of “well our growth rate this year will be about 5% because that is what we seem to be able to do in times like this”  I always ask the what if questions.  What if the revenue and profit target was a growth rate of 30% in the next 90 days?  How would you do that?  

It is interesting what happens when you start asking for ideas…you get them. 

Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

Email Steve to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.  Need more customers?  Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing, Internet Marketing and Direct Response Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high.

FREE Report:

How To Increase Business Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less

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McDonald’s is doing well in the current economic climate as reported by the WSJ and a lot of credit is given to the leadership of Ralph Averez, President.  Readers have a number of reactions to this story including some not so flattering.

However the are a number of principles being followed by Mr. Alverez that are well worth paying attention to. These include:

“I love numbers,” Mr. Alvarez says. “I think data used well really tells a story.”  He acts to create a continually improving story.  For example, modifying  menu offering and prices almost in real time. That is a great lesson.

He uses a baseball cap and sunglasses to disguise himself when visiting stores and testing food and service against the standards. There are two lessons here: one stay close to your customer’s experience and two, for awhile people who wear ballcaps and sunglasses and look like Mr. Alverez in disguise, may get outstanding service.

You don’t win and maintain customer loyalty by cutting the size of the serving. You eliminate all unnecessary costs and them some and keep focusing on increasing the value of the customer’s experience.

For the complete article Click Here.

My comments posted to this article on the site of the WSJ are republished now:

This is an excellent presentation by Janet Adamy. I really appreciate the statement “I love numbers,” Mr. Alvarez says. “I think data used well really tells a story.” He acts to create a continually improving story. That is a great lesson.

There is a huge opportunity for McDonald’s and others in using social media to increase sales and profits. I suspect that the large companies will turn to their marketing executives who will turn to their ad agencies and say let’s invest in social media. I recommend new thinking as social media is new landscape.

Steve Pohlit
http://stevereports.com

One reader suggests McDonald’s has got it all right.  I think they are not in step with on line social media treads. This represents a huge opportunity for them.