John Jantsch talks about podcasting

Podcasting is making a comeback thanks to a growing consumer demand for content. If you’re not listening to podcasts, or better yet, producing your own audio content, you better reconsider.

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I’ve been publishing the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast since 2005. I got into podcasting as a way to create content and unlock opportunities to get in front of leading authors and industry experts.

Back then, podcasting was new, iTunes had just burst onto the scene and an army of podcasters embraced this new RSS driven way to syndicate content. But then social media came along and things like Twitter and Facebook made podcasting seem so last decade. (Heck, people even starting suggesting that blogging was dead!)

But then, a funny thing happened on the way to the evolution of all things digital. People started to rediscover podcasting as a tremendous way to package and deliver content in a new and intimate way. All of a sudden, everyone had a podcast listening device in their pocket (otherwise known as a smartphone), and the new iPhone even came with the iTunes Podcast app preloaded. As a result to the easy access, podcast listening again began to surge.

Some people still shy away from the term “podcast” much like they did “blog.” Here’s the deal, just like a blog, forget what you call it, creating audio content is a great way to tap the fact that people want to listen to content on their most personal device – their phone – and why wouldn’t you work your tail off to get invited into that place.

How I podcast

There are dozens of ways to podcast and I am by no means an expert on every aspect of the technology, but I will share what seems to work for me.

Blue Yetti USB Mic - This a high quality microphone with lots of professional type settings and will set you back about $100, but the quality sound is worth it.

Skype – I do all of my interviews over Skype as my guests are from around the globe. I use a SkypeIn 9 didget phone number so my guests can call from a phone if they like but more and more people connect directly via Skype these days.

I also use a Skype add on called Call Recorder so I can record directly in Skype and it also lets me split the tracks so I can edit them independently.

Garage Band – I edit on a Mac and Garage Band does a great job. I level the sound, add music, and edit some things out before saving to iTunes.

Libsyn – I use Libsyn to host and stream my podcast. I pay about $10 a month for this and it keeps my podcast separate from my web hosting.

Blubrry PowerPress - This WordPress plugin creates a player for my blog and handles the RSS technical stuff including passing the podcast to iTunes. I run my podcast on my regular blog and use the category RSS feed to splice those posts off.

Rev.com – Sometimes I will transcribe my podcasts as a way to essentially take one form of content and make another. Rev.com is fast and very affordable.

If you want to learn more about the technical aspects of podcasting, check out Podcast Answer Man – Cliff Ravenscraft.

My personal listening list

2012 became the year that a number of very well-known content producers embraced the podcast format, producing and distributing audio content in a very big way.

The following podcasts have become very popular in iTunes and offer tremendous content for those inclined to consume their content while driving, working out or simply hanging out plugged into a pair of earbuds.

Seth Godin’s Startup School: Recently launched on the Earwolf network, the Startup School podcast features highlights from a workshop Godin conducted with 30 up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

Social Media Marketing Podcast by Michael Stelzner: Social Media Examiner’s Michael Stelzner helps your business navigate the social jungle with success stories and expert interviews from leading social media pros.

The Human Business Way by Chris Brogan: Business with a soul. Improve your impact. Be brave. Tell bigger stories. Discussions and more with today’s top authorities on sales, marketing and much more than just business.

The Work Talk Show: The Work Talk Show is a weekly podcast hosted by DJ Waldow & Nick Westergaard featuring a talk show format along with crazy smart guests who operate outside the lines of what work has traditionally looked like.

This Is Your Life by Michael Hyatt: This Is Your Life with Michael Hyatt is a weekly podcast dedicated to intentional leadership. The goal is to help you live with more passion, work with greater focus and lead with extraordinary influence.

Pat Flynn Smart Passive Income: Reveals all of his online business and blogging strategies, income sources and killer marketing tips and tricks so you can be ahead of the curve with your online business or blog.

Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield: “Facebook Marketing All in One for Dummies” co-author and online entrepreneur Amy Porterfield shows you exactly how to monetize your online marketing and blogging efforts using her own tested, ACTIONABLE lead generation strategies

Duct Tape Marketing: And of course, I’m partial to my own podcast full of small-business marketing tips, tactics, resources and interviews with some of today’s most inspiring authors, leaders and thinkers.

Download the iTunes Podcast App or Stitcher app and start filling your head with the sounds of content in the form of podcasts.

How I Podcast and Why I Think You Should is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Brian Solis.

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Search revolutionized the way we find things and altered how companies are chosen.

Blogs and social networks shifted the playing field dramatically once again just a few short years ago.

Today, you can’t open up an RSS reader without bumping into a torrent of content on, well, content.

Marketers get it, they need more content. The problem is, consumers don’t need more content, they need a better experience.

And that’s the future of marketing. Now that we have mastered a new tool set my gut tells me we are preparing for a trip back to the future.

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast is Brian Solis, Altimeter Group analyst and author of What’s the Future of Business?: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences.

Solis and I discuss the coming fusion of innovation, leadership and engagement.

Our presence in the lives of our customers is approaching a saturation point. The only thing left to invest in is creating better experiences using data, access, culture, sharing and community.

I interviewed Lee Odden for an upcoming episode and he plainly stated – “The best investment you can make in marketing is the quality and experience of your product.”

This is where we are headed and many will continue to play catch up – I’ve been saying this for years now and I believe it’s simply come to pass.

The Future of Marketing is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Podcast interview with Chip Heath

There’s a running joke in my family. When my girls were growing up I would often shout out to each of them as they were off to the next party or outing – “Make good choices!”

While I was completely sincere in my words it never failed to draw a big smile from them and their friends. (They’ve given me several gifts over the years immortalizing this phrase – see image above!)

While making good decision in life and in business is a great asset I wonder how many people really know how to do it well.

Most of what we do all day long is make choices. We choose when to get up, when to eat, when to go to bed and how to react to every word, deed and thought.

Of course, business only multiplies the choice making buffet.

We get to decide how to position our business, what color our logo should be and even who to hire. Some decisions are certainly more vital than others, but what tools do we generally use to make them.

If you’re like me, it’s mostly gut, experience and a boat load of emotion. Sometimes this works well and other times it plays right into my blind spots.

For this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I chose to interview best selling author Chip Heath. You may recall the Heath Brothers penned Made to Stick and Switch.

This month they are back with a new release Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work.

As the title and subtitle imply, they aim to teach us all how to make better decision. The book focuses on a 4 part decision making approach that is a bit of a systematic process that can be applied to most any situation.

The trouble with most of us is we make decisions that tend to validate what we already think and doing so blindly or without recognition can lead to trouble or repeating a history of less than stellar decisions.

In Decisive the Heaths suggest the following path:

1. Widen your options – never limit choices to one narrow set, get options and suggestions from others.
2. Reality-test your assumptions – this is a great one. Make small choices and see what the market has to say rather than betting the farm.
3. Attain distance before deciding – this is the good old “sleep on it” option – so many career and relationship ending emails would remain unsent if more of us did this!
4. Prepare to be wrong – At first I found this odd advice, but what it allows us to do is move to plan B. So often we get so attached to out decisions we dig deeper holes.

Every decision is choice, whether to embrace love or fear, raise your prices, launch a new product, all choices. Next time you face a decision think about the four points above and by all means decide to read this book!

How to Make Better Decisions is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Dan Martell

Have you ever wanted to seek out and find very specific advice for a really big thing you’re wrestling with? Or maybe for just that little thing that needs a specific experience or skill?

Dan Martell – founder and CEO of Clarity.fm

Well the good news is there is such a place and it’s called Clarity.fm.

Clarity was founded by Dan Martell, a Canadian entrepreneur and angel investor. Some long time readers might remember another company Dan started called Flowtown, as I profiled it years ago before he successfully sold that venture.

The idea behind clarity is both simple and brilliant. It borrows from the current shared economy trend that creates markets from available capacity – Think AirBnB, Lyft, RelayRides, Uber and Sidecar.

Clarity is a marketplace for available expertise. People with experience register and create a profile, set an hourly rate and make their expertise available to people who need it.

What makes the marketplace run is experts create the product, those in need buy the product and Clarity brokers the process.

While clarity is a potentially lucrative revenue source for consultants and advisors, I think the challenge it really addresses is the “pick your brain” syndrome that can present a problem for any entrepreneur.

Budding entrepreneurs are hungry for advice that successful entrepreneurs often love to share, and Clarity creates the process that makes it work for both. Many experts on Clarity donate proceeds to charity causes and fees range from $1 minute to, well, Mark Cuban prices per minute.

Seems like a Clarity profile would be a natural way to extend and monetize both a blog and a LinkedIn profile.

I got to visit with Martell while he was speaking at a conference and I present his story and advice for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast.

By the way, here’s my Clarity profile.

Getting Clarity One Minute at a Time is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Jonathan Fields

A few weeks ago I started a series of posts I’m calling Recover You. The series is focused on practices and habits that I believe lead to a healthier mind, body and spirit, a healthier business and ultimately a healthier economy. You can catch the entire Recover You series here.

The concept of work just doesn’t seem that fun. And sadly millions upon millions of people go into work, even work of their own creation, and get the life sucked right out of them.

What if work was more like play? Remember when you were a kid and you and your friends and siblings could get lost for entire days in the invention and implementation of play?

Well, certainly it helps if you love what you choose to do for a living, but like so many things in life play is as much an attitude as a state.

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In this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I had the chance to visit with Jonathan Fields, creator of The Good Life Project. Jonathan is on a mission to help people find and develop meaningful lives through their work and his weekly show is a shot of pure inspiration. While we didn’t talk specifically about play during our interview, I chose to include it in the context of this post because there is an element of joy Jonathan’s work and his Immersion Program.

I believe every business and every employee can benefit by purposefully adding elements of play to daily routines and organizational process.

Productivity at work isn’t about how much time you spend doing the work, as it is about how well you spend the time you invest. I know that I am always more productive when I feel good and am charged up – two things that play always delivers.

From a practical business standpoint there is much to like about play.

Play is a great way to connect

People are drawn to playfulness. It can be a defining personality trait of a brand or simply a way that you approach the things you need to do. Playful handbooks, emails and policies help people feel good about this thing we call work. Laughter is one of the greatest connectors in the human toolbox and study after study has proven the positive mental and physical health benefit offered by play. Who dictated that business and work was meant to be so darn serious anyway?

Play is super food for creativity

Creativity is the life-blood of any vibrant business and most of the work we end up doing leads to clogged creativity over time. Get the office together once a day and have a white board drawing contest or crank up Pandora and play name that artist and watch how the creativity begins to re-flow.

Play builds teamwork

The basic framework of most games depends upon teammates working together, within a set of rules, to achieve a common objective. Now that sounds like a healthy work environment to me. Take that up a notch and get people outdoors, into nature working together, playing a game and watch how quickly they resolve differences and work together.

Play reduces stress

Work can be downright stressful at times and play provides an outlet to reduce the physical and mental damages caused by stress. Play doesn’t have to mean a full-blown pick up basketball game in the warehouse either. We have two office dogs and I always feel recharged after taking them for a romp around the community garden that sits right outside my office. Dogs can teach us a thing or two about play.

Play doesn’t seem like work

When you are engaged in a game you enter what Psychiatrist and writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes as a flow state. The state many gamers suggest takes over and allows them play for days on end. Now, I’m not suggesting that you install an X box 360 in every cube, but I do think you can add game like elements to just about every function. Creating sales contests, allowing people to win prizes for scoring points, and designing ways to turn reporting on objectives into games are just a few of the ways that organizations keep work fun.

Play is an attitude that can run through every element of what makes a company what it stands for. Playfulness has its own brand of attraction and every organization could benefit by creating a position responsible for keeping play alive inside and out.

How to Play More at Work and Why You Must is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Bernadette Jiwa

Perhaps one of the most primary objectives of marketing is to get people talking about your business. Sure, you actually want them to buy from you, but when there’s buzz, when people think what you’re doing matters, there will be sales.

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But, how do you create something that will get people talking? How do you build a story that people want to share and become a part of? How do you not be boring?

Not being boring doesn’t mean you have to create controversy or fanfare, it means you have to do something in a way that others don’t. It means you have to do something better, faster or with more soul.

There are two parts to beating the boring equation – first you need a value proposition that allows you to both stand out and deliver something that no one else is. And then you need a story to carry your value proposition.

What most of us are really trying to do in this world is build a loyal community and few things build community like a story worth sharing.

The first element, the value proposition, however, is actually the harder part to get right.

So often we want to tell the world about our product or our service. These might be nice things, but the reality is they don’t build community. Community forms around ideas, process, common language or what I’ve come to call “Method.”

In order to truly tap the power of a value proposition you must fully develop your way of doing business, your method for standing out and delivering value.

When you get this part right, the story people tell and build practically creates itself out of the common language of the community that forms around your unique method.

And that’s how to not be boring!

To expand on this notion I visited with Bernadette Jiwa, author of Make Your Idea Matter: Stand out with a better story for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast.

Jiwa’s book is a tremendous resource in arena of storybuilding and making your business one that people can’t live without.

Nobody Talks About Boring Businesses is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Matthew Dixon

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Well, guess who else has to adapt to the new world order. That’s right, the job of an effective Sales Manager has changed radically as well.

If we are to liken the job of the new Sales Professional to something more like a Sales Guide, as I have, then too the Sales Manager must take on the expression of something much more like a Sales Coach.

If an organization is to have any chance of bringing sales and marketing onto the page where collaboration and engagement impacts the buying process a sales coach mentality must be in place.

It doesn’t matter if you’re the owner or the VP of Sales, if you want to get the most from the model of a sales guide, you’re obligated to build a culture that makes it safe and productive for every member of your sales team to practice marketing to meet sales objectives.

Like any good coach, you need a game plan and it must address your current culture and help steer your business away from traditional sales strategies and tactics. The following seven elements must be considered standard operating practices for the new sales coach.

1) Change the channel

Make an assessment of your current sales channel. How was your sales process, assuming there is one, built? How much input did your sales team have in building the process, determining how compensation is measured, crafting what an ideal lead looks like? If you are going to lead your current sales team into a world of inbound marketing you’ve got tear some things down, build some things up and make sure everyone realizes they are going to experience new freedom, new expectations, new accountability, new responsibility and a totally new way of viewing the function of sales. There’s a very interesting organizational development theory called Appreciative Inquiry (AI) that would make for an appealing approach here.

2) Bridge the gap

As stated at the outset of this post the Sales Coach is the bridge builder charged with closing the gap between the marketing and sales functions. One of the best ways to do this is to get them to understand and talk to each other. Now I know that sounds rather simplistic, but it’s how you do this that will make a difference. Instead of holding quarterly meetings where each side says what they are doing to support the other, break your marketing, sales, support and service teams into small units and compel them to go to work on segments or accounts as self managed teams. Assign team leaders and rotate each member through the role of leader every 60 or 90 days and watch how autonomy creates teamwork. You may, in your role of coach, need to guide them in productive ways, but this is how you create communication and innovation and you just might find that this changes your entire business model.

In this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I visit with Matthew Dixon, executive director with CEB’s sales and marketing practice co author of The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation. Dixon’s work is a great addition to the conversation about the changing role of the sales professional and the sales manager.

3) Find your method

As the coach you need your team to buy into your system. In order to do this you’ve got to create a sales process or methodology that allows them succeed while differentiating their efforts from the rest of the market. Think of this group as a community. As I’ve said many times, people don’t join directives or training, they join methods, unique points of view and processes surrounded with branding. Create a common language your team can share with each other and customers. Quite often your success model exists in the self-created process of one or two of your best sales people, go find it.

4) Swallow the whistle

The Sales Coach has to teach the system, but they also have to adapt the system to the special needs of each team member. You must create the eight week training program that teaches each sales guide how to listen online, identify ideal prospects, create warm leads, find problems, build a content platform, get to a podium and increase influence and authority in the market, but you’ll also need to build a routine that helps them get better results. A good coach cements the mindset of the organization, protects the culture and teaches critical thinking skills. To do this you must create a systematic way to assess progress based on their unique abilities and provide coaching based on improving their strengths instead of meeting cold call quotas.

5) Hire freaks

If we are to accept that the role of the sales person and the various implications of strategic thinking, problem finding and content creation that goes with it have changed, it can’t be much of a stretch to suggest the make up of the prototypical star sales person has changed as well. Dexterity, empathy, pattern recognition and a whole host of technology wrangling should have organizations opening up what a Sales Guide looks like. In Re-imagine! Tom Peters famously suggested that companies should “hire freaks” and “fire all male salespeople” as a way of highlighting just how stuck in ruts most companies are.

“Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to them.) (We seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most of us—and our organizations—are in ruts. Make that chasms.)” – Tom Peters, Re-Imagine!

So, what does your rut look like when it comes to hiring salespeople?

6) Manage automation

Marketing automation can be downright abusive these days. Companies use it to theoretically get more sales, with less effort, faster. The fact is, most actually use it to close off any chance that a salesperson might do better if left to develop leads that fit a not so presorted and scored purchase path. By the time a lead has made it through most people’s automation funnel they are simply shopping for the best price. Automation must be employed to let a sales person be more productive now that you should be asking them to do more teaching, listening, speaking and writing.

7) Measure strength

The best coaches know how to measure success based on the individual team member. Going fully with the sports metaphor, one player may need to work on offense while another must develop defensive skills. As a coach you can’t measure all on the same path, but you must be a nut about measuring everything. The one only way to develop honest measurement, the kind you can base compensation on, is to instill a culture of transparency. Everyone in the organization must know the critical indicators and what they mean. Every sales person, or self-managed team described above, should know what their contribution costs and returns. The entire team must come to think and act like owners, with full knowledge of profit and loss, in order to build an environment where everyone knows how to win.

Lots of work here to be sure and perhaps maybe a strong evaluation of the skill set required as an owner and certainly as a VP of Sales.

7 Obligations of the New Sales Manager is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Martha Beck

It’s a tough enough thing to scratch out a vision for your business and perhaps even tougher to keep it alive.

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As the owner of a business you’re expected to create the vision, impart it on the troops and hold them accountable for bringing it to reality. But who does that for you? Who reminds you when you’ve veered off course, who helps you think bigger when everyone around you is doing the opposite?

No matter how big your dream or vision is you need someone to hold you accountable to take the leap of faith that makes it real.

I’ve focused my content this month on coaching and consulting and my guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Martha Beck. Beck is undoubtedly one of the most well-known life coaches, author of multiple books, including Finding Your Own North Star, columnist for Oprah’s O magazine and all around fascinating human being.

In this episode she shares her coaching model and point of view about success.

I posed some typical questions small business owners wrestle with when it comes vision and accountability and if you listen closely you’ll hear me getting pushed to take my own leap of faith.

Here’s what an effective coach can do for you.

• Push you to discover why you do what you do
• Help you uncover the things you need to give up
• Unlock how you get off your current plateau
• Show you how to make money doing what you love
• Help you dream bigger and get clearer

Here’s my advice – hire a coach. Share you vision, ask them to push you and make you keep your vision alive.

Thanks Martha!

How Do You Keep Your Vision Alive is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Randy Gage

Back when I started my own business, some twenty-five years ago, I was a bit of rebel. I was taking a leap and doing something that many considered terribly risky.

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Well, the game has changed dramatically since then and now not starting a business, not figuring out how to be paid well to do something you truly love or not taking a leap of faith is perhaps the only risky thing left in the world of work.

This month I’ve been meeting with and interviewing coaches and consultants that help people chase what they were meant to do and I’m sharing their advice and stories as part of my monthly content theme. People like Martha Beck, Jonathan Fields, Pam Slim and Randy Gage appear on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast this month. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss a single interview!

For this week’s episode I visit with Randy Gage, prosperity coach, speaker and author of nine books including Risky is the New Safe: The Rules Have Changed . . .

Technology change, political change, human develop have led to a time where security is all together a different thing than it once was.

Some of Gage’s nuggests:

• Opportunities to solve problems are abundant and that’s where wealth is created.
• We are all now in charge of creating our own channel and communicating that with the world.
• Technology makes audacious ideas reachable today.
• Nobody has a money shortage we simply have an idea shortage – come up with the right idea and money will be plentiful.
• Ask the right questions about every industry – Who owns the moon?
• What are the three things that keep my market awake at night?
• What’s going to happen with every form of technology in my market?
• You must understand cyclical, linear, hard and soft trends to predict the future.
• If something is impossible, how could it be possible?

Why Playing It Safe May Be the Riskiest Path of All is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with John Mackey

The title of this blog post is the gut wrenching, eye-opening question that every business must consider if they are to make a difference.

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I’ve found over the years that most business owners are motivated by the fact that they can make a difference with their business. It may not always start that way, but over time, and through conscious consideration, a higher purpose often evolves.

But how do you bring that higher purpose to the entire organization? How do you make it the focus of why you do what you do?

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market and author of Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business

In our interview Mackey shares his most important idea about purpose. “First off, business is not zero sum game – it creates values when everyone wins – all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, investors,  and the community at large.”

So, how do you find purpose in your business?

Do a purpose search.

Bring some small group of all of your stakeholders together and let them tell you – Why the world needs your business or the difference you are currently making. This could be an incredibly powerful set of meetings and it just might inspire a totally new and motivating direction for your entire organization.

In his book Mackey’s cites dozens of examples of companies that are doing well by doing good and outlines a plan for finding purpose, developing conscious leadership, creating systems intelligence and building community based on mutual benefit.

Purpose is, in my opinion, the most potent value proposition you can create. It’s how you make a difference and differentiate in the same breath.

Would Anyone Care If Your Business Disappeared? is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Ekaterina Walter

With over a billion users, a place in the everyday life of over 60% of Internet users and a track record as one of the fastest growing companies in history, the title of this post may seem odd.

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But, like every white-hot phenomenon, Facebook must continue to evolve to remain relevant in the lives of those that built it. There are already signs that people are growing weary of the behavior the social network fostered.

The Facebook generation is growing up and the next wave of high school and college age folks don’t think it’s all that cool. Vine and Instagram seem so much hipper right now.

So, is the future of Facebook a sure one?

My guest for today’s episode of the Duct Tape Podcast thinks Facebook has something that other companies lack – a leader with a long-term vision.

In Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg, social media innovator at Intel, Ekaterina Walter outlines how 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg revolutionized the Internet and why he may continue to do so.

Walter contends that Zuckerberg possesses the traits that have driven other leaders such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos, to create innovation and breakthroughs over and over again.

Most notably she stresses Zuckerberg’s uncanny long view. In the face of mounting pressures to produce profit for shareholders, a place on the world leadership stage and constant criticism for decisions on innovation and privacy, Zuckerberg has remained passionate about the long-term path for Facebook and that, Walters suggests, is why she would not bet against Facebook.

Throughout Think Like Zuck Walters illustrates the nature of five traits that are shared by brilliant leaders and signal the healthy traits of any leader.

The five traits or P’s are:

• Passion — Keep your energy and commitment fully charged by pursuing something you believe in.
• Purpose — Don’t just create a great product, drive a meaningful movement.
• People — Build powerful teams that can execute your vision.
• Product — Create a product that is innovative, that breaks all the rules, that changes everything.
• Partnerships — Build powerful partnerships with people who fuel imagination and energize execution.

It’s funny how many recent works, including my last book, The Commitment Engine, have explored the relevancy of things like passion and purpose in business.

There is little denying the impact these traits bring to the story and culture of a business and, love the idea or hate it, Mark Zuckerberg is a shining example of what it takes.

Will Facebook Remain Relevant? is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Michael Port

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Most marketers are clear about targeting their marketing and advertising messages. but when it comes to referrals it seems that notion is no longer valid.

The thing is, we all want referrals, but what we really want are referrals and introductions that fit, that match what we consider our ideal client profile.

And here’s the other thing, our referral sources often are equally enthusiastic about providing referrals, but when we don’t help them understand how to do this in the best possible way, we make their job that much more difficult.

You need to think in terms of an education process for referral sources, be they clients or strategic partners, just as you think in terms of educating prospective clients.

On this week’s episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I visit with Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid and upcoming Book Yourself Solid Illustrated, about this very thing.

Michael has consistently advised an approach that mandates that you get very, very specific about who does and does not make an ideal client for your business and during this conversation we talk about how to bring your “red velvet rope policy” to the generation of referrals.

Your referral sources need to know the following five things.

1) How would I spot your ideal client?

Describe your ideal client in such detail that most would have a hard time not identifying at least a handful of people that fit perfectly. Or better still, identify several actual prospective individuals or companies to use as examples. The more detail, including the types of pain or challenge they might be facing, the better prepared your referral sources are to make the right introductions.

2) How would I best describe why they should hire you?

Hopefully you have a very clear understanding of this first. I often refer to this as your value proposition or why us. Give your referral sources the actual words to use to describe how you are different from everyone else that says they do what you do.

3) What are some common trigger phrases I should listen for?

Whether you sell siding or software people probably don’t sit around with friends and discuss how they long for some siding or software. You’ve probably discovered that people talk about the problems in their lives and you’ve got to be good at translating that into the need for what you do. So, someone might say, “I sure hate painting my house every other year” or “my accountant is all over me because we can’t ever produce accurate sales reports.” These are what I call trigger phrases and you should produce a solid list of the actual things a hot prospect might say and provide this list to your sources.

4) What is your follow-up process?

Go ahead and tell your sources exactly how you intend to follow up and exactly how you would like them to be involved. This helps turn a lead into an introduction and set their mind at ease that you have a professional and valuable follow-up process rather than a hunt and kill approach.

5) What’s in in for me?

This last one may take many forms and only in rare instances would I suggest some form of monetary incentive. It is a good idea however to reinforce two things – why this is a valuable thing for them to do and how much your appreciate it. Often times connecting referral generation with non profit support or allowing them win something related to your business makes a lot of sense and can add some fun to the process.

You can create a one sheet document, web page or just informally address each in a meeting, but the key is to make it easy for your referral sources to do what they quite naturally want to do.

5 Things Your Referral Sources Desperately Want to Know is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with John Jantsch

Get this 12 month blueprint as a free eBook here – Total Online Presence Blueprint

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Business owners often view marketing as something they must finish so they can get back to work.

Marketing, as I’ve stated often, is never done, it’s just another system that you must operate at the highest level possible at all times.

With that in mind, you must view marketing as a habit. It must be something that invades your daily routine. You must identify and keep two or three high priority marketing activities at the top of your project list each month.

One of the ways that I’ve been successful at pushing this “live by the calendar” mentality is to get business owners to create a monthly theme of focus and build their plans around this focus. You can practice this idea with a monthly content theme or a monthly action plan theme.

Once you have your monthly focus you can develop projects, resources and partnerships related to your theme. You can create weekly staff meetings that keep your theme alive and measured. And, you can start to make daily marketing habit appointments with yourself and others to continue steady progress in this all important arena.

When you take this month by month approach you’ll find that progress happens, things get moved forward and the view of marketing looking back over six months of this practice looks pretty astonishing.

For this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I present the audio version of a month by month action plan aimed at helping you build a Total Online Presence.

I take you down a 12 month journey and prescribe a theme for each month along with six to eight action items. The idea is for you to choose no more than three items each month and attack them until finished.

You may also find slides I prepared for this talk to be helpful.

Marketing Is a Habit, Not an Event is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Bill Cates

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Everyone loves referrals, but let’s face it – the real point of a referral is a customer. If you’re getting plenty of referrals, but few are turning into new clients, it’s time to change a few things about your approach to referrals.

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The number one mistake people make in the business of referral generation is to ask for leads or referrals when they should be asking for introductions.

So many people seek referrals by simply asking clients, or anyone that will listen, if they know anybody who needs what they do. If the referral source can come up with a few names we’re often tickled to have some new “leads” to go chase.

But, what do we really have? Something less than cold call – maybe. Sure, we can name drop, “Bob said I should call you.” But, we’ve all been on the other end of that call and know how that usually ends up.

If you want to make referral generation a significant part of your marketing success you need to start asking for introductions and not simply a list of names. You need to build the trust and leverage that would allow you to ask a client to introduce you to three others that could benefit from the value you bring.

In this week’s episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I visit with Bill Cates, author of Get More Referrals Now and the upcoming Beyond Referrals. Bill has spent many years coaching financial professionals on the fine art of authentic referral generation and in this segment he shares some well tested tactics.

The key to generating introductions is to make it as easy as possible for your referral source to do so. Offer a list of specific prospects you would like to meet and see if they know anyone on the list. Offer to host an informal educational workshop and allow your best customers to bring a friend or two. Take a handful of customers to lunch and ask them each to bring a guest.

Cates mentions a former client that would ask his clients to introduce him to two colleagues who would take his call just because they asked them to.

Getting your customers or contacts to rise to the level of engagement required to make introductions or bring a friend to lunch requires a level of value that few can muster. This is the key to making this idea work. You must bring value to every interaction, conversation and setting.

When you can do this, people will gladly introduce you to others. When you change the context of a referral to that of an introduction you automatically raise the stakes for all parties and that’s the place where you can do your magic.

The Number One Mistake People Make When It Comes To Referral Marketing is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Bob Burg

I suspect the title of this post will raise some eyebrows. I mean relationships aren’t about ROI right? They’re about something much deeper. Something you don’t measure in the same way you might, say, the performance of an ad.

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Well, maybe. Relationships in business are more important than ever and why not think about the return on the time and assets you invest in building real ones.

Relationships can and do feed the soul and make businesses more human and they are quite often the key to great success.

When we work to build relationships we invest our relevance, our influence and our network – all valuable assets. So, why not think in terms of investing these things wisely.

But, if we were to take this ROI notion to heart, we must measure the right thing.

I visited with Bob Burg, best selling author of Endless Referrals and The Go-Giver for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast and right off the bat Bob offered this, “All things being equal we do business with and refer those we know, like and trust.”

I know you’ve probably heard me utter those same words many times and it is the ultimate game we engage in – building trust. In fact, I would argue that trust and respect are the definitive measures of a strong and healthy relationship.

Today it’s so easy to talk about the relationship we invest in with our thousands of Twitter followers or our Google+ Circles, but can that scale in any manner that feeds the soul or the bank account?

One of Burg’s greatest contributions to the art of relationship building comes from his relentless pursuit of the notion of giving before getting. Healthy relationships are almost always built on our ability to add value.

Value can be something as simple as “you make me feel better” to something much more business like such as “you help us get more from our current assets,” but the equation remains the same – those that enter into relationships and potential relationships seeking to give value earn trust and respect and that’s how you produce a return on your investment.

I believe you can start to measure the ROI of relationships based on how much you give. Think about that for a minute. You can measure the success of a relationship based on what you give rather than what you get.

What if that was the standard by which you measured how you engaged your world?

What if instead of just looking for ways to engage potential buyers you looked for more ways to do things like introduce others, make referrals, express appreciation, share other people’s content, promote someone else’s dream or understand what a person was lacking.

Although it may at times seem counterintuitive, and it can’t be done with an eye on reciprocation, this is how you measure the ROI of relationships.

The ROI of Relationships is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing