Optimal Sales Strategies by Jason Cronkhite

Are You Thinking About Building A Company?

// March 9th, 2010 // Comments // Tips & Tools

Get started on it today and seek out help.  It can be a long process and you need people around you to coach you, support you, provide you new insight and resources.  Stay determined but remember to play!

Watch this and chime in with comments if you have something you want to share, ask, give advice or just speak what’s on your mind. So, what’s on your mind?

What Does Your Website Wordle Look Like?

// March 8th, 2010 // Comments // Tips & Tools

This is my website Wordle.  What’s a Wordle?  A Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. In this case I submitted my site domain ( JasonCronkhite.com ).  The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.  It’s interesting to see what it picks up from a content perspective and I was expecting to see something completely different.

Is this a good thing - a bad thing?  Does it matter?  It’s abstract and random however; you can put your site through the same test and you’ll notice a trend of the large words remaining most visual.  From my perspective, I’m asking myself, “what should the one thing that really matters to my audience be most visual”?

“GROWING YOUR BUSINESS”

That’s what I’d really like to say.  I don’t like that my name is most present yet it being the domain name makes sense.  I’m interested to hear what you think?

Want To Increase Sales? Connect Your Customers With Jive!

// March 5th, 2010 // Comments // Tips & Tools

This is a great interview by Robert Scoble with Jive Software CEO Dave Hersh.  It really speaks to the purpose of how Socialized Customer Relationship Management can have an impact on your business.  Enjoy!

Check Out What I Found That Might Help You

// March 5th, 2010 // Comments // Tips & Tools

Image via Wikipedia

	Jason Cronkhite shared New Orleans Tech.Net
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	Jason Cronkhite liked World’s Most Admired Companies 2010: FORTUNE 500
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	Jason Cronkhite shared Find the Content Your Readers Love With Analytics
	Jason Cronkhite liked Spiritual Life - What is most Important to You?

Does Your Website Pass The So What Test?

// February 24th, 2010 // Comments // Tips & Tools

Update:  Here’s the updated post - Passing The So What Test

Today at 2 ET / 11 PT, Andrew Warner & Mark Magnacca will be hosting a live web meeting on Mixergy.com.  The purpose of conversation is to help entrepreneurs and web designer/developers build better web messaging in order to address the real value of their product or service.

It’s tough, but true — the people you’re trying to communicate with, sell to, or convince don’t really care about you. Nor do they care what you’re offering them — until they understand exactly how it will benefit them. If you recognize that one hard, cold fact - and you know what to do about it — you’ll make more money, achieve greater success, and even have more fun.

So, tune in today on Mixergy.com/live and learn how the So What Test can really help your business.

Planning To Be More Effective In 2010?

// December 16th, 2009 // Comments // Business Resources

Mark Magnacca | Author of So What?

Do you know how so many people struggle to effectively impact others in business and with their public speaking?

Well, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a story with you that has changed my personal outlook on communicating with others – in business and in my personal relationships.

As you know, this year has been rough for many people in business. Over the summer, I was looking for a few ways to better position myself as a freelance consultant to grow my new interactive marketing company.

I stumbled upon a website called Mixergy that was about to conduct a live interview with the author of this book, “So What?:  How To Communicate What Really Matters To Your Audience”.   It sounded interesting so I stuck around for it.

I have to tell you that after watching the interaction between Andrew Warner, founder of Mixergy, and Mark Magnacca, author of So What?, I felt compelled to go out and buy the book that day, and I did.

I read the book from cover to cover that day – a first for me since I rarely can sit still that long.  After I read the book, I popped onto the author’s website to register for his 21-Day Challenge.

Thinking the author might be interested in a few areas where he could improve his marketability and the interactive nature of the website I sent him an email with some of my ideas.

Long story short, Mark hired me to help him with his online marketing strategy for the book and his training company, Insight Development Group.

I’m really excited to be working with Mark as he is a dynamic and down-to-earth guy.  I think we’re both in a position to teach each other and more importantly, we both really care about helping others grow in business and in their personal lives.

We have big plans for 2010 and I hope that you’ll consider buying Mark’s book. By recommending this easy to read book to others, you will be helping them apply principles that can really impact their life.

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and safe & prosperous New Year!

Happy Holidays,

Jason Cronkhite

P.S. if you want to see the interview I saw on Mixergy.com here’s the link.

P.S.S. This post was orginially an email that I sent out to my current contact list.  Let me know if you’d like to be included on future emails.

Reputation Drives Everything In Business

// September 10th, 2009 // Comments // Interactive Marketing

You have heard that your reputation in business is important but, how important is it?  More importantly, how passionate are you about driving a positive experience at every level of your business?  And, the burning question I have is - what role does social media play in your businesses effort to manage your reputation?

I know you believe the importance of having a positive reputation is true but, do you LIVE by it?  Companies that do are the leaders in their industries in more ways than one.  Leading companies that drive the value of reputation at every level of their culture are innovators, good corporate citizens, great employers, customer advocates, and more.  Take Narayana Murthy’s advice, the founder and chairman of Infosys in India.

“If we seek respect from our customers, we will not shortchange them; if we seek respect from our employees, we will treat them with dignity and fairness; if we seek respect from our investors, we will follow the best principles of corporate governance; if we seek respect from our vendor partners, we will be fair with them and sympathetic to them; if we seek respect from the government, we will not violate a single law of the land; and if we seek respect from our society, we will give back to the society.” (source: Forbes.com)

7 Core Reputation Dimensions

With Narayana’s advice in mind, consider that the Reputation Institute tracks global corporate reputations centered around 7 core dimensions and produces an annual report ( available below ) on who’s achieving the best reputation.

1. Products & Services
2. Innovation
3. Workplace
4. Governance
5. Citizenship
6. Leadership
7. Performance

Social Media’s Role

Ok, so how does social media play a critical role in managing and building your business reputation.  Take a look at some of these statistics below and you’ll start seeing how social media’s explosive growth plays a significant role in managing your business reputation:

• 75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. (Yankelovich)
• Online social network users were three times more likely to trust their peers’ opinions over advertising when making purchase decisions. (”Social Networking Sites: Defining Advertising Opportunities in a Competitive Landscape,” JupiterResearch, March 2007)
• Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchases, according to ZenithOptimedia. (AdAge, April, 2008)
• Consumers trust friends above experts when it comes to product recommendations (65% trust friends, 27% trust experts, 8% trust celebrities). (Yankelovich)
• Consumers say that word of mouth is still the number one influencer in their apparel (34.3%) and electronics (44.4%) purchases (Retail Advertising and Marketing Association/BIGresearch Study, November 2008)
• The Trust in Advertising survey of 26,000+ found that Consumer Recommendations are the most credible form of advertising. (”Social Media Marketing: The Right Strategy for Tough Economic Times” Awareness, 2008)

I think it is safe to say the statement made in the headline of this post is FACT!  There are moutains of data to back this up.  Social media marketing, whether we know it or not, has been part of our consumer driven culture for a long-time - it’s just evolving and becoming more important with our digital connectivity.

It has been called gossip, word-of-mouth, public perception, buzz, etc.  No matter what you call it, your business reputation is magnified 10x over with the advent of digital market conversation.

More than ever before brands must enhance the value of their reputation and protect it to mitigate the risk of having a bad reputation and not being recommended.  Practicing social media marketing or collaborative conversation requires regular open flow of communication throughout your communities of interest and organization.  You also have to realize as a business that this takes time and process.  Monitoring your reputation really needs to be a standardized business function.

Social media tools and applications provide companies the capability to manage and enhance their reputation at each of the 7 core dimensions.  In some way, shape or another social media will enable you to drive a companies culture centered on strong reputation metrics.  And, if your business or organization chooses not to embrace the importance of reputation value management you will soon learn about the road less traveled and it may be too late.

Your organization must LIVE by its Reputation and it must engage in the practice of using social media because your friends, family and the people you trust are.  Ah, but don’t just take my word for it =} .  The New York Times is telling you how important this is here .  ZDNet gives you a different view here .  ThomasNet provides yet another perspective here.

Thanks for reading, enjoy the report below and take the opportunity to subscribe to my feed for future articles.

Reputation Report