Archives for January 2007
Beware advertising “opportunities”
If you’re offered an advertising “opportunity” I strongly suggest you do your homework before taking your decision.
I was phoned a few days ago by a chap representing the publishers of a growing business handbook. The publishers are well known and the publication is sponsored by the Institute it’s published in association with. The chap was immediately open about the possibility of editorial/ advertorial possibilities and rate negotiation.
He emailed me the media pack and the blurb said that the handbook was “a perfect way to reach entrepreneurs and senior decision makers in thousands of dynamic SMEs as they plan their future growth”
Under Distribution and Readership it says that the handbook will be
- Available through all high street bookshop chains
- Widely distributed through corporate libraries and business information centres
- Backed up by various targeted marketing activities by the publisher
This all sounds fine, but there’s no real substance in it.
It then goes on to talk about the institute and its membership before getting to the advertising rates.
When the chap called me back a couple of days later I asked him questions I thought would be pretty easy to answer, since the handbook is in its 10th edition:
- What is the print run?
- How many copies were bought by Institute members for each of the last couple of editions?
- Ditto how many bought through bookshops?
Worryingly, the chap couldn’t give me the answers, yet he represents the publisher!
He then went on to quote me some impressive names of blue chip companies that had advertised in the handbook in the past. I pointed out to him that, in my opinion, those companies don’t tend to advertise in this type of publication to generate response - it’s a brand exercise, so there’s no real way of judging the effectiveness of their spend.
I’ve told him that the only way I’ll consider advertising is if he sends me the last two issues, I can find adverts for comparable services to ours and they tell me when I call them that their ads in the handbook pulled quality response.
He promised to send me those issues but I haven’t received anything yet…
If you’re offered an advertising opportunity that you’re not sure about, please don’t rush into it, take your time and do your homework.
Do any of you have good or bad experiences you’d like to share with our readers? If so please respond with your comments.
Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
Thought for the week - 16
We woke up yesterday to no electricity and an eerie stillness in our neighbourhood. A little investigation revealed that some 1500 homes were affected and nobody had any idea when the supply would be returned.
Okay, do we sit around and wait or do something different? We decided to go out for a brisk walk and reward ourselves with a pub lunch. We boiled loads of water in saucepans on the gas cooker, had all-over washes and only remembered that it was pointless turning on the hairdrier when nothing happened!
On our walk we met up with a friend who decided to join us. Once there we had a great time and caught up with someone else we knew who dampened our spirits somewhat by pointing out that, according to his Sunday paper, apparently this is the worst time of the year for many of us:
- Christmas is well and truly over with only the credit card bills as testimony to yes, we really did spend all that to make it a good one
- New Year is a vague memory and most of our good resolutions have gradually gone by the board again
- There’s nothing on the immediate horizon to look forward to
I’m not denying that all of that is probably true but the great big plus that somehow overrides all of that for me is the days are getting longer! By the time the electricty supply was restored I decided it was too late to do the work I’d intended to yesterday but I didn’t mind getting up a bit earlier today to catch up.
I’m finally coming round to really understanding that it’s not so much what happens in your life that’s important but how you respond to it. My mum’s an eternal optimist and for many years I equated that with naivety, but I was wrong.
So positivity is my word and attitude for this week. And that’s probably just as well, since I heard on the television early this morning that cynicism could be physically bad for your health!
Have a positively wonderful week.
Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
Just do it!
… is a line that appears in our Build Firm Foundations course because we think Nike have got it right.
Yet it applies to anything in your life or business that you know isn’t right and needs fixing.
You’ll always be able to think of a thousand reasons (excuses) why it’s not quite the right time for you to improve your sales and marketing skills:
- You’re too busy servicing (sometimes unprofitable) existing customers
- You have more quotes to get out to potential customers
- The payroll needs to be done
- The VAT needs to be done
The list is potentially endless. Then you wonder, six months or a year down the line, why you’re in much the same position as you were, yet your competition, whom you believe in truth to be no better than you, is charging ahead.
Well maybe your competition just got smart and decided to invest a little time learning how to better position itself so that it demostrates its understanding of the target market’s problems and pains and has the best solutions for them.
Unlike my partner’s son’s line of business, this (and other areas of sales and marketing) isn’t rocket science. And you don’t need a high priced consultant to show you how to do it. Do you remember Portia Nelson?
You are the only impediment in your progress, not the demands of your customers, the quotes for potential customers, the payroll or the VAT man. If you’re not completely happy with your company’s performance isn’t it time you figured out how to fix it?
Once you start and see how it all fits neatly into place, you’ll wonder what on earth took you so long!
Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
