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The Life, Death, and Business Change of Retail Sales

Posted on November 12, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

Remember the good old days of eBay, when you could pick up $500 software for $30 or $40?

Those days are back—if “I got an unexpected but not very exciting bargain” qualifies as the same thing to you. The question is: does this matter? Is it real business change?

Is it even worth thinking about as a new sales or marketing tool?

 Greentoe social pricing shopping categories

Greentoe social pricing shopping and business change

Say hello to Greentoe. Greentoe, like its competitor Buystand, hopes that you’re looking for better deals on the things you buy online. It’s enough to make you drool, isn’t it? Here come the good old days of name-your-own-price shopping! ... READ MORE of The Life, Death, and Business Change of Retail Sales at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (500 words, 2 images, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Influency, Marketing

Partner, or Target?

Posted on August 30, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

Sales to Small Business is Different than selling to Large Business

It’s a small business change that can control your success selling to small businesses. For that matter, it can effect your success with large businesses, too.

Target, or Partner?

I was speaking with a client yesterday. One of the things we handle for him is sales. We prospect for him peripherally, but specifically we do his “closing”; prospects come in, and we uncover needs and decide what to sell them. We do that for his existing clients on the upsell side of things, too. ... READ MORE of Partner, or Target? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (501 words, 1 image, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service

How Much Does That Hotel Room Cost? It Depends . . .

Posted on July 5, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

In a Doonesbury cartoon strip quite a few years ago one of the characters gets arrested for a traffic violation. When his father comes to bail him out of jail and asks what the cost will be, he’s asked in return how much cash he’s brought. Upon answering “about a thousand dollars” he hears the good news:

“I have the most amazing coincidence to report”

Orbitz, a large travel booking web site, has recently begun charging for hotel bookings based on how much money visitors to the Orbitz web site have. Or at least it looks that way; if you visit Orbitz using a Macintosh computer you’re likely to see different prices than if you visit using a Windows-based PC. ... READ MORE of How Much Does That Hotel Room Cost? It Depends . . . at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (395 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Marketing, Media

Here’s Why You Can’t Sell to Small Businesses

Posted on October 17, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 3 Comments

Are you still cold calling? Have you noticed that selling to small business in particular is all but impossible (and of course, selling to large business is even harder)?

Business changes. All the time. I’m fascinated by business change, and our clients know we help them create and get them through the process of business change. Sure, I’m all about that pesky Search Engine Optimization stuff, and I love talking about how SEO works particularly in relation to long tail marketing, but I get really hopped up on the pure academics and how they intersect with reality. ... READ MORE of Here’s Why You Can’t Sell to Small Businesses at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (718 words, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

The Real Reason Steve Jobs Was Such a Great Salesman

Posted on October 7, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 3 Comments

Steve Jobs Could Sell Anything

You know why Steve Jobs could sell us anything? Because he didn’t care what we wanted.

OK, so that’s not exactly true. Steve Jobs realized we didn’t know what we wanted, and rather than ask us what appealed to us, he told us what it was.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that Jobs could figure it out, and correctly.

When I was writing my short ode to Steve Jobs yesterday I left out something that felt Jobs-esque enough to talk about but didn’t feel like it belonged in that piece. Once when asked what market research went into the iPad, Mr. Jobs replied: “None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want“. ... READ MORE of The Real Reason Steve Jobs Was Such a Great Salesman at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (255 words, 1 image, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Marketing

What Have You Sold Today? What Are You Doing To Change That?

Posted on August 5, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 9 Comments

I have a buddy who’s the best pure salesman I’ve ever met. “Pure salesman” meaning he’s been picking up the phone and getting people to say “yes” for decades. Strangers. Sales, baby! Sales! Sales! Sales!

I’ve known this guy for about ten years. I’ve seen him sell, and when he’s able to get someone on the phone who’s looking for whatever he’s selling he’s the guy I want doing the selling; he’s that good.

And now he’s struggling, and I mean in a big way. Because people don’t answer the phone any more. ... READ MORE of What Have You Sold Today? What Are You Doing To Change That? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (552 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Search Engine Optimization SEO

When Is a Store Like BestBuy Really a Bank? (Hint: Always)

Posted on May 25, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

With most electronics stores having disappeared, BestBuy almost stands alone as a place where you can walk in and find pretty much whatever you’re looking for in the way of televisions, computers, accessories, and pretty much anything else that boys think are toys.

But what is BestBuy really selling you?

I once wrote about some shady business practices at BestBuy, where computer buyers are forced to pay for services they don’t need. I suggested that BestBuy’s practices in that area might be illegal, and certainly there’s a moral question attached to forcing customers to buy services as a condition of buying products—at BestBuy or anywhere. ... READ MORE of When Is a Store Like BestBuy Really a Bank? (Hint: Always) at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service

Are You Blogging? Is Your Competition? Does It Work? Why?

Posted on April 5, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

I read a lot.

In fact, it often feels like I read too much, and that there are way too many “experts” clamoring for my attention. I receive hundreds of articles each day in the news reader app I use in my Droid, and many of them are redundant. Hundreds of tweets fly by me, too.

The problem is wading through all that noise. And it’s become such a large problem that often I find the 140-character musings of the 40-odd people I follow on Twitter to be more useful than the more fleshed-out information in my news feed. ... READ MORE of Are You Blogging? Is Your Competition? Does It Work? Why? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (606 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Marketing, Media, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Do You Know What You Sell? Customer Service, But Then … ?

Posted on December 6, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 4 Comments

What if you walked into a great looking restaurant, were treated perfectly, were happily surprised by lower-than-expected prices, felt all warm and fuzzy, and when the food arrived it was horrible? Even though the customer service experience was magnificent, you wouldn’t go back. The restaurant did a great job with everything else, but at the end of the day you were there for the food, right?

That happened to me this weekend. My partner and I tried out a diner that she’d heard great things about, and exactly what I described is what happened. Everything there was great except the food. ... READ MORE of Do You Know What You Sell? Customer Service, But Then … ? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (357 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service

Life Insurance Sales: The New (Old) Tax Shelter

Posted on October 5, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 3 Comments

A very long time ago, in what feels like a galaxy far, far away, I was a financial consultant. And while I’m pretty darned good at money management, it didn’t hold my interest. I moved on to technology, and have been walking the line that separates real-world from geek-world issues ever since.

One of the tools I was taught to use in the estate management part of financial planning was life insurance. And forget the “what happens to your baby brother!!??!!” aspect of selling life insurance; I learned that the most mundane of financial vehicles was great way to make estate taxes disappear. ... READ MORE of Life Insurance Sales: The New (Old) Tax Shelter at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (346 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

SmartPhone Paralysis: You Won’t Buy a New One!

Posted on September 28, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

By now you’re using a SmartPhone. Or not, you big hold-out, but everyone around you is clutching either an  iPhone, a Blackberry, or an Android SmartPhone.

The sales figures say that these devices are being adapted at unprecedented rates. Everybody has decided to Tweet on the go, babble about where they are via Foursquare, and buy stuff on eBay while driving to Aunt Sadie’s house.

Unexpected side effect: we’re actually buying new phones less frequently. This from a study by J.D. Power. ... READ MORE of SmartPhone Paralysis: You Won’t Buy a New One! at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (536 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Is Wi-Fi Sales, Business Development, or Social Networking?

Posted on August 16, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

When’s the last time you paid for Wi-Fi?

I’m astounded that there are still businesses trying to get you to pay for Wi-Fi. I mean, seriously: that connection costs them only a few dollars a month, and while it’s possible I’d hang out in or in front of my local Subway sandwich shop all day to get that signal, the truth for almost everyone is otherwise.

Guilt issues aside, even if you get a few hangers-on the extra money most people spend while sitting for hours at Starbucks makes giving that Wi-Fi away a great business change. ... READ MORE of Is Wi-Fi Sales, Business Development, or Social Networking? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (400 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Development

To Sell, Become Harry Potter

Posted on December 6, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

Most business people work 24/7. Successful ones learn to shorten their hours to . . . maybe sixty per week, but business is never far away; my Droid alerts me to things I’ve told it are important every thirty minutes or so.

I don’t bring it into the bedroom, or to meals, by the way.

So here I sit, early on a Sunday morning, checking what’s happened in the word while I was asleep. A story in the New York Times about colleges catches my eye, and I think, pass that along. ... READ MORE of To Sell, Become Harry Potter at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (215 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)

Filed Under: Uncategorized




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