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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“This Is How To Negotiate Better On Social Media” – Negotiation Insight

People have asked me, should you negotiate the same way on social media as over the phone, or in-person? And my answer, like always, is, it depends. Every negotiation has nuances that make it different from those prior. That’s true, even when the same people are involved in a negotiation. Social media is an environment that possesses opportunities to use tools, such as bots, that you may not be familiar with in a negotiation. Take note of the following to discover how you can become more proficient when negotiating on social media.  https://bit.ly/3bcPa3N

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales Skills

Book Marketing Truths

Here are 13 rookie mistakes that kill your book sales:

1. Self-publish your book and wait by the phone – Ugh, been there, done that, it doesn’t work.

2. Traditionally publish your book and wait by the phone – also not recommended. Books don’t sell themselves no matter which publishing route you take.

3. Not establishing your platform sooner – you need reach and visibility to sell books (and anything else for that matter!)

4. No book proposal – Even if you plan to self-publish, creating a proposal serves as a blueprint and roadmap for your book marketing success.

5. Having only books in your arsenal – A book is a “gateway” into all your other investable opportunities. Make sure your high-fee offerings align with the content of your book.

6. Going it alone. You need book endorsers, launch partners, possibly even contributors to help you build a community of promoters around your book.

7. Using expensive PR firms – almost every single author regrets doing this for the simple reason that their campaigns do NOT generate book sales.

8. Paying for “Amazon #1 bestseller” campaigns. As you may know, a dirty sock became an Amazon #1 bestseller and there are a ton of scammers and goofballs promising “guaranteed” bestseller status. We’ll reveal why that’s not the point — and how to hit your goals regardless of this phony metric.

9. Not branding the book. Your book is your brand and you should be able to build your business around that book and its ideas for the next 3-5 years.

10. Being afraid of sales. Don’t worry about hawking your books. Focus instead on selling your ideas, value, impact, results, outcomes, and gifts – and selling everything (including your book) becomes much easier!

11. Buy into an anthology. For most authors, this is a shortcut that seems very appealing until you realize it’s a money-making ploy for the so-called “publisher” and you get very little juice from being in a book with 20 other authors who couldn’t cut the mustard on their own, either. Sigh.

12. Marketing overwhelm. Having no idea what to do – when to do it – how to get it done – and thus ending up frustrated, confused, and doing next to nothing to market your book. Lack of marketing leads to a lack of sales leads to a lack of monetization. That’s called a doom loop.

13. Mistake size for value. If you’re writing your first (or next) book, don’t give in to the false assumption that you have to write a 300-page tome. Many of the highest-grossing and bestselling business books of the past 20 years weigh in at less than 125 small-format pages.

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Entrepreneurship Marketing Skills

17 Tips to Create Audio That Rocks

I’ve done a lot of homebrew audio – on my laptop – with a Zoom H1 digital recorder – and with my trusty Blue Snowball microphone and Audacity on my Mac. And I’ve also done a fair amount of studio recording in studios ranging from the scary to the awesome.

Here are 17 tips for speakers, authors, consultants, and independent professionals who want to create better sounding, more professional audios for their podcast, radio show, audio products, or voiceovers.

1. Stand up when you record – it makes a HUGE difference to the way your voice sounds. For example, I recorded the entire 12 hours of the Do It! Marketing audiobook standing up. (Wear comfortable shoes!)

2. Speak close to the microphone – you want to get right up in that bad boy’s face. Somewhere between 4 to 8 inches from the microphone. If you’re doing this at home, test different distances and use the one that sounds the richest, warmest, and most clear.

3. Use a pop filter. You will totally thank me later. It’s going to be the best money you spend if you’re serious about creating great audio.

4. Don’t overinvest in equipment. You don’t need a lot of fancy gear to sound great. A good USB microphone, a mic stand, a pop filter, and some basic recording and editing software like Audacity (free at this link) will go a long way.

5. Don’t skimp on studio time, either. If it’s an important project where production quality counts, find a great local recording studio near where you live. Top-notch studio time is surprisingly affordable these days. Expect to pay between $75 and $125 an hour for a top-notch facility and technical staff who can help you produce top-notch work.

6. Don’t over-prepare. If it’s a big project especially – it doesn’t make sense to over-prepare. You should be familiar with the material (if you wrote it, you will be!) and that’s about it.

7. Don’t under prepare. If you’ve never done an audio recording before, paid studio time is not the place to learn the ropes. Invest a few hours with “practice recording” at home. Your studio time will go that much more smoothly and quickly.

8. Read – but don’t “read.” In other words, don’t make it SOUND like you’re reading. Speak naturally. Pretend you’re talking to a friend so it’s not boring.

9. Mix it up. Use vocal variety – just as professional speakers and seasoned storytellers know how to vary their pace, tone, pitch, and volume to keep an audience engaged in what they’re saying… YOU should use the full range of your vocal variety to emphasize keywords, transitions between points, and to underscore important ideas.

10. Use your body. Since you’re standing, you’ll have the ability to do more physical movement. Use it! It’s amazing how the voice and the body are connected. Have you ever seen actors like Robin Williams or Whoopi Goldberg or Tom Hanks in those “Making of” special features on the Disney movies that they do voice acting for? They are gesturing wildly with their hands, bouncing on the balls of their feet, making silly faces, leaning into the microphone, sometimes even jumping up and down. And it’s for a VOICEOVER. That’s because your vocal energy is tied to your physical energy. Use it – and your voiceover range and variety will improve dramatically.

11. Remember the art of the pause. Listeners need a pause to comprehend the last thing you said. Think of pauses – some short, and some not so short (for dramatic effect) – as the punctuation in your audio. If you never pause, you exhaust your listeners who lose the thread of your long sentences or complex ideas. If you use pauses to insert “natural phrasing” into your script, it makes it much easier for your listeners to understand, absorb, and they WANT to keep listening!

12. Take it one page at a time. For the Do It! Marketing audiobook, I had to get through 60,000 words and 280 pages. If I had thought about it that way during the recording sessions, I might never have made it! I took on the task one page at a time. Do longer recordings with this mindset, and you’ll sail right through faster than you ever imagined. I cruised through 150 pages on Day 1 (6.5 hours) and 130 pages on Day 2 (5.5 hours). And it was fun!

13. Have a “keep going” mindset. Voiceover professionals know that their main task is to “get the job done” – and that momentum is their friend. Don’t think about stopping. Don’t take too many breaks. You’re in the studio (yes, even your home studio) to crank out the work, not to obsess over minor details or do endless retakes. Keep going!

14. Flaws are good. Good professional audio editors will take out every inhale, smooth over every rough patch, edit out every vocal aberration. GREAT editors will leave in just enough of those same aberrations to make the voiceover pro sound human. When we chat in coffee shops, over breakfast or lunch with friends, or in front of prospects or clients in meetings, our vocal and verbal delivery is never 100% perfect. There’s a difference between sounding professional and sounding sterile and robotic. So leave a few “personality flaws” in your audio. Maybe 5-10%. It makes all the difference and you’ll sound like a REAL human.

15. Pause whenever you need to. Ah, the magic of editing. Whenever you screw up a line, swallow a word, stop to fix a typo in your script, or for any other reason (sneeze, cough, get a drink of water) – keep the audio rolling and pause. Then pick up where you left off. Most professional audio engineers will mark the script at that point to help the editor, but you just pause as long as you need and jump right back in when you’re ready. You don’t need to ask permission, you don’t need to apologize, you don’t need to get flustered. Pause so you can GO!

16. Eat! And drink tea, bring lozenges, avoid dairy and coffee, and bring water. Don’t forget to eat breakfast on the day you’re recording. Why? Because stomach grumbling is audible on good audio equipment. Yes, really. Avoid coffee – it dehydrates you. Drink tea – especially lemon tea or ginger tea that has a little bit of acid to clear and soothe your throat. Bring lozenges with you in case you need a midday vocal recharge – I like the Ricola classic Swiss herb cough drops. Avoid dairy products like milk or yogurt which tend to generate phlegm and block up your throat. Also, bring a water bottle so you have plenty of water available in the booth as you record. Water is your friend!

17. Personality not included. No matter how great your script, it doesn’t have any personality until you pick up the script and put YOUR personality into the words you’ve written. Don’t be shy – in fact, if you don’t bring your full personality to the recording, you’ll miss out on the biggest opportunity that audio programs and products present – the opportunity to connect and build rapport with your listeners and have them experience what it’s like to have a warm and personal conversation with you! If you’re loud, be loud. If you’re a little edgy, sound edgy. Don’t hide your personality for the sake of a “professional sounding” recording. There’s no such animal – the whole point of recording audio is so that you CAN marry your content with your personality.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“This Is How To Attack Difficult Choices In Negotiations” – Negotiation Insight

Negotiations can become complicated when presented with difficult choices. But you can attack those difficulties by being cunning, beguiling, and using a little lateral thinking. The following is how you can accomplish that.

Click here to discover how you can make difficult choices easier!

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://c-suitenetwork.com/radio/shows/greg-williams-the-master-negotiator-and-body-language-expert-podcast/

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Negotiation Insight” click here https://themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

 

 

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Mergers & Acquisition Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“This Is How To Use Leverage To Win Negotiations” – Negotiation Insight

As a #negotiator, #leverage can enhance your #negotiation efforts. But it can become a tool turned against you if you misuse it. Discover how you can use leverage to improve your negotiation outcomes. bit.ly/310PAHc
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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales Skills

Pie

As one of the few experts who only preaches what I practice – and what has worked for hundreds of our clients – here’s the real deal on the 7 key strategies that need to be firing on all cylinders for your business to grow.

It’s about pie – more on that in a minute…

Questions I get from smart cookies like you all the time:

  • David, what does it take to gain pre-eminence in my market?
  • How can I become the go-to person in my topic/niche?
  • Why am I still wrestling with the feast-or-famine revenue roller coaster?
  • How can I set and get premium fees when clients are tight with budgets?
  • How can I expand my reach, grow my list & build my platform?
  • How can I recession-proof my business so that I make money regardless of the economy and industry ups and downs?
  • I’m plenty busy – why aren’t I making more money?

All these questions have their answers hidden in one of 7 key areas of your thought-leadership pie as a consultant, speaker, coach, author or independent professional…

No alt text provided for this image

Let’s explore each one – and see how you can tune, tweak, and improve anything that’s missing, not performing, or could use a major overhaul in YOUR business…

1. Speaking – obviously, this is our area of expertise. Having a solid speaker marketing strategy is vital to help you gain visibility in front of audiences who matter (aka buyers and decision-makers); generate leads for your back-end professional services; and generate significant revenue in paid professional speaking fees for your workshops, seminars, keynotes, trainings, workshops, and private events. Speaking is one of the most powerful lead-generators and revenue-generators in your expertise-driven business.

But how do you scale this above and beyond the audiences you can reach through live speaking? The next pie slice has your answer…

2. Online Courses – The most successful experts, speakers, consultants, and coaches are embracing the power of online courses, e-learning, and digital distribution methods for their expertise. The first benefit here is pure scalability – your business can reach thousands (or tens of thousands) of ideal customers, prospects, and buyers through the power of online courses. As a source of revenue, online courses are hard to beat because you create it once – and get paid over and over and over. This allows you to create a freedom-based business where your value is no longer tied to your personal time, attention, and presence. Jackpot!!

But now how do you reach those thousands of eager prospects, buyers, and decision-makers?

Let’s look at the next piece of the pie…

3. Webinars – The day I fully embraced webinar marketing back in 2012, my entire business – heck, my entire life – changed dramatically. We are living in an “Attention Economy” – meaning, when it comes to getting clients, you first need to earn their attention and only then do you get the chance to earn their money :o) The #1 best way to deliver massive value to your subscribers, fans, followers, prospects, and buyers is with content-rich webinars that teach actionable strategies, tactics, and tools. You need to be radically helpful and radically generous. This is what converts strangers to friends and friends to prospects and prospects to paying customers who love you, buy, repeat, recommend, and refer like crazy.

But webinars presented here and there sporadically and without a clear strategy are not going to do the trick. So you need…

4. Funnels – A marketing funnel is simply a fancy word for a programmatic sequence of touchpoints – emails, videos, blog posts, webinars, PDFs, and other helpful communications – delivered in a specific sequence to a specific subset of people specifically interested in a certain one of your products, services, or programs. A marketing funnel is your lifeline that keeps you connected to prospects who are at various phases of the buying cycle – from merely interested in the topic (browsers) all the way to committed to investing in your solutions/services (buyers). A well-designed marketing funnel will take a cold lead from initial contact to signed contract in a predetermined sequence designed to both add value, and extend offers and invitations to your relevant investable opportunities. Without a marketing funnel in place, you will never get off the “feast or famine” revenue roller coaster. And worse, you risk alienating people who are NOT interested in buying today while completely missing out on sales to the hot prospects who are ready to buy right now.

But what about long-term stability and predictable revenue? The best way to share your expertise and gain this benefit is…

5. Consulting/Coaching – Having longer-term engagements on your service menu – such as 90-day coaching packages or year-long consulting programs or monthly facilitated mastermind roundtables – is a great way to increase your impact on client results. Remember, people don’t really value transactions – but they VERY much value programs and services that deliver transformation. And delivering results over a sustained period of time is the best way to guarantee your clients’ success. Because of the greater depth, breadth, and duration of these engagements, it is much easier to get premium fees from premium clients who are deeply committed to the transformation you offer that will get them the results they truly want. These longer-term engagements also provide the foundation of your financial stability because the income is significant and ongoing.

But then how do you capture “lightning in a bottle” to let all the folks who can’t afford your consulting or coaching know you are the real-deal resource who can help them when they’re ready to transform?

6. Publishing – One of the best ways to do this is with publishing a nonfiction business book based on the expertise you already have. Writing, publishing, and promoting a business book that captures your methodology, training, and tools is an outstanding way to build your platform, expand your reach, and establish your authority as the “go-to” expert in your specific topic, niche, or industry. After all, you “wrote the book” on it so you must be a highly credible expert. And – some tough love coming up here – your book needs to be excellent. Not just good or very good, but truly great. It does NOT need to belong – in fact, the bestselling business books of all time are less than 120 pages in a small 5×7 trade publishing format. But just writing a book for the sake of having a book (and a crappy one at that) is definitely not going to help promote your expertise. That’s why the book needs to be marketed, launched, and sold for the long-term impact it can have on your professional success.

And what makes all of these components really take off? It’s about how you articulate and distinguish them with your messaging and packaging, which means you need to master…

7. Copywriting – Copywriting has nothing to do with patents, trademarks, and copyright notices ;o) “Copy” is written content conveyed through online media and print materials. Copywriting is one of the most essential elements of effective marketing and successful selling. It is the art and science of strategically delivering words (whether written or spoken) that get people to take some form of action. Good copy resonates with the reader and is relevant, valuable, attractive, and effective in communicating the value, impact, results, outcomes, and emotional payoffs tied to investing in and benefitting from your products, services, or programs. The better you are at copywriting, the more prospects, leads, and sales you will generate because you’ll be able to quickly get your prospects to “get it, need it, and want it” when considering buying from you.

Bam!! There you go.

If you want some guidance on how to put these exact pie slices together for YOUR business, check out https://www.expertprofitformula.com/

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“This Is How To Use Doubt To Win More Negotiations” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

“Doubt can be a mental strangler that leads some people to become less than who they are.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

Click here to get the book!

 

“This Is How To Use Doubt To Win More Negotiations”

 

People don’t realize; they’re always negotiating.

“I’m not sure. If we use that in our negotiations, our real intent might create doubt about our seriousness. That could cause the other negotiators to act unpredictably. You’re right. That’s something we have to consider and plan for, but by having them doubtful about our intent, we’ll keep them off balance. Then, when the time is right, we can be more definitive about our actions.” You’ve just been privy to a conversation that occurred between two negotiators about the use of doubt in their negotiation.

Doubt creates uncertainty. It’s a tactical tool that every smart negotiator uses in negotiations. Thus, good negotiators use it deliberately to motivate the opposing negotiator mentally. Doubt is also the tool that’s used in everyday life to encourage people to adopt one action versus another.

Click here to continue, and you’ll discover how you can become a more persuasive negotiator by injecting doubt into your negotiations.

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://c-suitenetwork.com/radio/shows/greg-williams-the-master-negotiator-and-body-language-expert-podcast/

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Negotiation Insight” click here https://themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales Skills

11 Questions to Spark Your Success

Ready for some major motivation to kick butt, take names, and chew gum?

Here are the 11 questions you need to answer:

  1. There’s no good time. Now is the time. What are you waiting for?
  2. Put out your best material. For free. Do you want to be SHARED or SCARED? 
  3. YOU may be your biggest obstacle. What would happen if you got out of the way? 
  4. Stop STARTING things and get more into DOING. What can you DO today – right now?
  5. A few may wish to see you fail. A lot more are rooting for your success. Where is your attention?
  6. Forget the word vision. Better: What do you SEE in your future?
  7. You’re aiming too low. How can you elevate your sights, your fees, and your value?
  8. Stop blaming others. It’s ALL your fault. Move on – what’s next?
  9. A bend in the road is never the end – unless you fail to turn. Where do you need to turn? 
  10. It’s not what you think it is. And it’s bigger than you think it is. Why not embrace that?
  11.  There are no silver bullets, secret sauces, or magic beans. Now, what’s your plan? 

What you need is a healthy dose of reality from those 11 answers – and we’re here to help.

So let us help you launch – or grow – your expertise-based business as a consultant, trainer, coach, speaker, information marketer, or course creator: https://www.expertprofitformula.com/

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Personal Development Sales

Let’s Not Talk About This

Negativity.

Pessimism.

Sadness.

Cynicism.

Enough already.

Acknowledge the current hard reality and uncertain conditions we’re all working under?

Sure – yes – please.

It’s important.

We’re not delusional and we’re not in denial.

Things are bad.

AND they’re going to get better.

And they’ll get a whole lot better, a whole lot sooner if you…

Refocus on your gratitude.

Reboot your enthusiasm.

Reimagine your future.

Redraw your plans.

Reinvent your business.

Reignite your team.

Restart your entrepreneurial engines.

Reconnect with family and friends

Rekindle your joy.

Rediscover why you started this crazy, wonderful, amazing business to begin with.

And then…

Begin again.

Be radically generous and radically helpful.

With purpose, heart, and the spirit of serving others.

Go, go, go!!!

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Skills

7 WTFs for You

What does my focused mind like to do?

Five things:

1. Sell stuff

2. Help our clients sell stuff

3. Record videos about selling stuff

4. Talk to my smart friends about how THEY sell stuff 

5. Make up funny titles for your enjoyment :o) 

Here’s what made me think of this:

WTF = Wants To Fail. 

Who in the world wants to fail?

Here’s what I mean…

Are you already successful? Good!

By all accounts, including your bank account, you may be ‘successful.’

But it’s very possible that the brand of success that you created has a price which can best be described with the saying, “Nothing fails like Success!”

Imagine yourself after your initial success…

Speaking 50+ dates a year at good fees; coaching dozens of senior executives a month; selling 10-15,000 books under your own steam; consulting and running seminars for your roster of Fortune 500 clients…

BUT today…

You are working way too hard…

And there’s no time to market your services, develop new products, write more books, or live your life!

After reaching your initial success, you’re now trapped by it!

If you see that, but don’t DO something about it – well then you Want To Fail

That’s one flavor of WTF…

Here are 6 more… 

But before we even get to that, for those of you that this particular article resonates with – let’s help you reboot, reignite, and reimagine your business for its next level of success. 

1. Won’t Try Failing – if you’re not willing to try new things (and fail at some of them), you’ll never dial in your success ingredients or get different results

2. Whines Too Frequently – self-explanatory (I hope!)

3. Will Too Flaccid – you need an iron will and a crystal clear vision of where you’d like your business to GO in order to get there via the shortest, surest, quickest path

4. Worse Than Failure – the only thing worse than failure is giving up on your dream before you ever get the chance to succeed

5. Wait Til Friday – procrastination, delay, and denial are not the path that will get you to ANY worthwhile destination. No more waiting. Now is your time!

6. Whatever That’s Fine – settling for whatever business falls in your lap or whatever referrals you occasionally get isn’t a survival nor a growth plan – it’s an abdication of your entrepreneurial dream.

Don’t settle.

Don’t wait.

Our time is shorter than we think.

It’s game time – you’re primed – you’re pumped – you’re ready.

Let’s DO THIS.