Wise Observer

Using cartoons can help brand your marketing and drive home important messages. Although surprisingly inexpensive to acquire, humor can be one of your most powerful marketing tools.

Humor puts your readers at ease. Readers appreciate a touch of humor in an otherwise overly serious world.

Humor operates on an emotional level, driving home your message in a far more memorable way than words alone. Humor makes sensitive topics more approachable while summarizing and reinforcing points that would otherwise be lost.

Different types of humor work best in different contexts. Many speakers begin with a joke to put the audience at ease, or a story about ‘a funny thing that happened on the way to the meeting.’

But jokes and stories are less appropriate for written communications. Jokes can be misinterpreted and depend on delivery and timing for their effectiveness. Stories can take too long to tell.

Cartoons are perfect for print communications. Readers who typically check them out before reading the adjacent articles appreciate cartoons.

More important, cartoons communicate at a glance. A cartoon can attract your reader’s attention and drive home an important point in a memorable way.

The editorial page of any newspaper shows how effective humor can be in simplifying complex subjects and driving home a point of view.

Humor also adds a visual dimension to your marketing, differentiating your message from your competitor’s. Cartoons encourage readers to look at topics they might otherwise skip.

Where do you get cartoons? One of the best sources is the Cartoon Bank, www.cartoonbank.com. Here, you can license reproduction rights to cartoons that originally appeared in the New Yorker Magazine.

You can select from tens of thousands of cartoons. You can search by topic or keyword. After choosing an appropriate cartoon, you can find out how much it will cost to license it, and then you can download it.

Licensing fees are surprisingly reasonable for most business applications. For example, you can license New Yorker cartoons for use in presentations for just $19.95! For other purposes, the cost depends on where you’re going to use it and how many people will see it.

There are, of course, other sources of cartoons. If you see a cartoon you like in a newspaper or magazine, write the cartoonist in care of the publication and ask about availability and pricing. If there is a particular cartoonist whose style you like, contact the cartoonist about a custom cartoon.

This has worked very well for me and I owned total rights to use the cartoon any way I wanted.

Cartoons are great for the home page of your website, newsletters, training materials and presentation visuals.

In each case, the unexpectedness of a cartoon immediately captures your audience or reader’s attention and visually reinforces your message.

Here are some suggestions for marketing with cartoons:

1. When in doubt, leave it out. If the cartoon does not perfectly support your point, leave it out.

2. Always add the copyright information described in the licensing agreement.

3. Never run a cartoon without first obtaining a license to reproduce it.

4. Optimization. After downloading, resize and sharpen the cartoon in an image-editing program like Photoshop and export it in the proper file format.

Using humor in the form of cartoons is a powerful way to brand your marketing and drive home important messages to your prospects and clients.

About The Author

Roger C. Parker is the $32,000,000 author with over 1.6 million books in print. Do you make these marketing and design mistakes? Find out at www.gmarketing-design.com

CRITERIA

How many times have we all noted that our products, ideas, or services will solve our prospects problems - and then the prospects don’t buy our product, or do something different than what we think they should do.

Here’s the deal: People do not make purchases outside of their own values. People have created their status quo based on criteria that encompasses their values, vision, and norms. And they are comfortable.

As sellers, we find prospects with a problem, and assume that because our product can fix their problem, they will buy it from us if we can get them to understand it/like it/like us.

One of the most stultifying problems in the fields of sales, marketing, and advertising, is that we operate from the belief that people make decisions based on information. So we push, pitch, position, and present fabulous ads, direct mail pieces, product material or whatever, assuming that the buyer will know just what to do with the presented information. And when they don’t, obviously it’s an emotional decision, because rationally they should have known to choose our product.

But even the best-presented information will not find a home if there are ingrained beliefs or established systems that obstruct the intent of the message. In other words, we don’t even hear what will offend our beliefs, or we ignore that which we don’t relate to or that which will cause us to consider change - no matter how well presented.

It’s time now for sellers to take on new roles beyond that of information suppliers; they must now help clients address all aspects of discovering their solution in their complex environments. Indeed, they must be facilitators, and help buyers manage decision and change. By operating a decision facilitators rather than product sellers, they can close their sales cycles by half, and become trusted advisors to their clients.

To become a facilitator you must first understand how people make decisions.

HOW PEOPLE DECIDE

There is a specific decisioning sequence that all people (teams, couples, individuals, companies) go through in order to even get to the point of considering making a new choice. This could be called the ‘pre-decision decision’, but until people go through this sequence, they won’t even consider doing anything different from what they are doing, whether they need to or not, whether they notice something is missing or not. It’s important that the sequence be used in order, otherwise the brain
can’t see a reason to re-examine the status quo. Why would you need to hear about a new hair color product if you like your hair color? That’s why pitching doesn’t work.

Use the sequence, which I call the Buying Facilitation Method®, to help your prospects discover what and how they need to make a buying decision. And remember that your job is only to support the discovery process initially - until your buyer designs an appropriate solution. Then it’s time to offer them your product information.

1. What’s missing, and how did it get that way?

People being people, they get comfortable with the way things are, and probably have had some part in creating the rules; a whole system of beliefs, rules, relationships, management and hierarchical roles, partnership agreements, etc., is in place that maintains the status quo.

When I am selling Buying Facilitation training, I ask my prospects the following:

What parts of your current sales approach would you need to maintain before you add something new? What would that look like? How will you decide which pieces of the current approach need to be maintained?

So the first part of the decisioning system is the element of discovery of all the aspects of the status quo: where are we, how did we get here,what’s stopping us from getting where we need to be? What beliefs must be reexamined to be willing to add something new to what we are doing? How will we know when / if we are ready to do something different?

2. How can we fix it with what’s familiar?

Before anything new is tried, before people purchase something that is unfamiliar as a fix, they will try to fix it with something known. Buying/bringing in an unknown product/vendor will mean that the current system will be at risk. Familiar resources are already built into the system; before trying something new, people will try the familiar. Just because you show up with the best fix doesn’t mean they will choose you to fix it.

3. What are the systems elements that must be attended to?

The way things ‘are’ were created by what ‘is’. Folks are comfortable with it, or at least have made some sense of it, and everything works together because of each other. When something new enters the system, the system gets discombobulated.

Shift one piece of a system and the system changes. Change the color of the room, you buy new fabric for your couch and drapes. Purchase new software, the existing software has to be reconfigured. Change doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

When people finally do discover that they are not so effective as they can be, AND they realize they cannot fix it with something familiar, they’ve now got a problem: they must actively seek a fix.

But before they fix the problem, they must understand and account for all of the variables within their system to reduce discomfort and friction, or there will be chaos.

In consultative selling, sellers ask questions about the presenting problem - even, possibly, around some of the issues surrounding the problem. But having information doesn’t manage those unique, idiosyncratic systems within the prospect’s culture that will be affected by change. Indeed, the seller having answers doesn’t matter: buyers just won’t buy until or unless all of their ducks are in a row. And they could use help sequencing their thinking, and recognizing those issues that need to be managed that the seller (as product expert) can actually assist with.

Remember: no matter how wonderful your product is, how needed it is, how much ‘pain’ there is, how good a sales person you are, or how good the ad is, buyers will not buy your product until or unless they consciously understand there is something missing that they cannot fix themselves, that there will be no chaos when they bring in a fix, and that their current systems will flourish with their new choices.

Sharon Drew Morgen is a thought leader, and the author of New York Times Bestseller Selling with Integrity, Sales on the Line, and Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell as well as over 400 articles. She is the pioneer behind the visionary sales paradigm the Morgen Buying Facilitation Method®. As the architect of a wholly original sales model, Sharon Drew has provoked, inspired, and motivated thousands of sales professionals world-wide.

http://www.newsalesparadigm.com
http://www.sharondrewmorgen.com
http://www.buyingfacilitation.com

Canned or scripted sales approaches are rarely successful, because one size does not fit all in selling.

Studies conducted by the public opinion researcher, social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich in the late ’70’s and the Stanford Research Institute’s VALS (values, attitudes and life-styles) study that assessed buying motives in the early ’80’s, indicate that there are at least five distinct categories of purchasers or individual buying modes.

These studies provided insight into how adults communicate, are persuaded and how they make buying decisions.

It’s almost impossible to create a verbatim sales pitch to address the variety of issues (sometimes conflicting) in each of these categories. Therefore a successful sales or service industry professional must learn through extensive in-depth probing what type of buyer he is dealing with and then create a custom-tailored presentation based specifically on the answers he receives from his probing.

Please check out our self-directed learning system that will help you replace canned presentations with a simple six-step selling process where answering objections and closing the sale often take care of themselves:

http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/manual5.htm

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. a firm specializing in sales, customer relations, and management training and development. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Deloitte & Touché, Bank One, Jefferson Pilot, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and the best selling Building & Closing the Sale, Fifty-Minute series books and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Crisp Publicantions a dividion of Thompson Learning. He has also authored a client acclaimed Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching & team development, telemarketing, and personal productivity training guides. To obtain a substantial discount on two of Virden’s new manuals, 101 Sales Myths and Organizing For Sales Success, check out the listings on The $elling Edge, Inc. website at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/books1.htm.

Note: You can contact Virden at: virden@TheSellingEdge.com.

If you are a mortgage broker or loan officer and you are actively buying mortgage leads, or you are considering buying mortgage leads, here are a few tips on how to get your customers attention.

Most lead companies will sell their leads up to five times, so you can pretty much count on competition from other loan officers.

When calling your prospect for the first time, be sure you are armed with the knowledge of some products you believe would benefit your prospect based on the info you received on the lead.

If a customer tells you they are no longer interested, most likely it is because they are working with another loan officer.

So, if you have done your homework, you will be able to say something to the effect of “oh, I’m sorry to hear that Mrs. Jones, I have some really great products and rates, I’m sure would have benefitted your needs.”

I guarantee that your customer will once again be interested, and more than willing to listen to what you have to offer.

Also, if you have to leave a message, don’t just leave your name, number, and the company you work for. Let them know that you have products and rates that you know they will be interested in. This will highly increase the chances of your customer calling you back.

One more thing, if you want to wipe out your competition all together, you may want to consider buying leads exclusively.

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of http://www.jconners.com a mortgage resource site. You can also check out his blog at http://wwwmortgagespot.blogspot.com for more articles

Is your company on the right track? Are they, are you focused on the important things that will drive success in the future? Will the product you sell, the customer you serve remain the same five to ten years from now? How about your job, will the skills you have today serve you in tomorrow’s job market? Not likely!

Most of us know that there is something wrong with the way they work today. Yet we keep doing the same things naively expecting different results. Getting out of this rut and moving forward requires a new focus and new ideas. In the face of these ever-changing realities the only way that we can get ahead of the curve is by learning to clearly articulate goals, watching and predicting trends.

Did you know that?

• Experts estimate that 80% of products that we use today will be obsolete in 3-5 years.

• 50% of all jobs for the next six years have not been created.
• 50 years ago it took a lifetime for technology to make a job irrelevantnow it takes 2-3.
• A New York Times article reported that nearly 2,000 jobs are eliminated daily.
• 70% of workers experience stress related illnesses.

The good news is that “the value of human capital will be the most valuable resource in the 21st century.”

Companies are quick with the rallying cry that people are their most valuable asset. It’s not what you have but how you use it. Think 6 can help your company prepare for the future. Our message to every employer and every employee is that it is not just “people” but prepared people, people with focus and drive that will provide the competitive advantage.

Work of the future will not fit into the neatly defined boxes that we call jobs. If you are going to be successful in advancing and managing your career, you must adjust your way of thinking from getting a job to finding work that adds value to the company.

You add value to a company when you:

• Understand the needs of the business.

• Understand and separate your needs, wants, and desires.
• Balance the business needs, your needs, and the realities of work.

Understand The Needs Of The Business

The first rule of business is simple and can be stated with one word”PROFITABILITY”. Profit is the difference between sales revenue and costs. If a company is not profitable it will not succeed. Without profits there are no raises, no growth, no profit sharing, no bonuses, and eventually no jobs. Every business no matter the industry must add to the economic value of the enterprise. Our careers and our livelihood are dependant on understanding what drives profitability. To know how you and your talents positively impact the companies bottom-line puts you in the drivers seat.

In time of great uncertainty a company must work with a focused urgency and a unity of purpose. The focus and purpose is the bottom-line and requires balancing six equally important drivers. We call them The Business 6.

1. Increase Revenue

2. Increase Quality
3. Increase Productivity
4. Reduce Costs
5. Reduce Cycle-Time
6. Increase Customer Loyalty

If you are think that you are just a small fish in the big pond with no effect on profitability then you are swimming upstream. Every decision you make has an organizational impact. Some are small and some are great but if you think that you have NO impact on The Business 6 then you are swimming with no life jacket!

Understand And Separate Your Needs, Wants, And Desires

As important has it is for your organization to plan for the future and set strategic goals, so is true for you. Without knowing where you are going, you are constantly evaluating your life in retrospect. Working smart means working toward well established and articulated professional and organizational goals.

To begin examine your interests, abilities and experiences, and think about what you consider the ideal job. Based on this information, determine your goals and develop a plan for reaching them. Working smart means focusing on value-added activities that promote profitability. You can’t be an effective systems analyst, HR representative, trainer, or manager unless you understand how your role serves the business as a whole.

Defining your career goals within the context of business needs gives you a concrete way to increase and express your value to the organization. To be effective stay current on industry trends and prepare yourself for challenges you may face. Look for educational opportunities, such as earning an advanced certification, that enhance your expertise and sharpen new and existing skills. Knowing how your work contributes to the overall goals will lead to added confidence, boldness, and enthusiasm.

Balance The Business Needs, Your Needs, And The Realities Of Work

A job is a temporary way to package tasks that need to done for the department. These help the company achieve its overall mission. The more a job contributes to the organization or to customer satisfaction, the longer the job is likely to last. It is important to see your job in the context of the larger organization, industry and/or profession. You need to develop a clear line of sight between what you do everyday and how the company performs.

Never forget that every decision you make in the course of your career must be made in the context of the business’s goals. Always try and go above and beyond your job description. Don’t just do what’s asked of you, think of other ways you can contribute to the success of the team. Each company wanting to be profitable is constantly balancing The Business 6. It is that goal that should impact each and every business decision that you make.

The key to future success does not find its origins solely in the way we work, but also in the way we think. The ability to think differently is the key to creating innovative solutions to old problems. Our ability to move from stagnation to growth means that we must see challenges as obstacles that can be overcome, and have a confidence in our ability to remain focused on the goal.

That done, the success or failure of your mission will ultimately be determined by dozens of small decisions you make everyday. With each decision, ask yourself two simple questions.

Question #1: “Is this action going to lead me toward my goal?” If you answer “no” and if you are truthful with yourself, refocus, change and direct your behavior toward your goals.

Question #2: “Is the decision I am about to make in line with the organization’s goal and The Business 6?” If the answer is yes, proceed with full vigor! If the answer is no, rethink and develop a new course of action.

We will all face challenges in our lives personally and professionally. It is not what happens to us, it’s what we do about it that counts. Those who are great predictors of trends to come and those that set purposeful goals accordingly will be the victors.

Valarie is CEO of Think 6 Results — a knowledge broker passionate about learning and improving performance in organizations. She’s a writer, presenter, and executive coach on a mission to get every employee and organization focused on and thinking about the SIX business driving goals that matter.

Looking for just the right SPEAKER for your special meeting or event; we offer full-day presentations, training workshops, and keynote addresses. This high-energy presenter is ready to cover topics like: strategic thinking , career strategy,leadership, change management, teambuilding, employee engagement, or organizational learning. Let us customize a presentation for you. You won’t be disappointed.

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Contact Valarie at washington@think6results.com or by calling 630-705-1189. Visit us at http://www.Think6Results.com