Focus

The other day I was going through my Twitter feed and saw a tweet asking a question to Gurbaksh Chahal  (a very successful entrepreneur who sold his last company for $300MM and the one before it for $40MM) about whether he get's tempted to work on other ideas while he is working on a company. His response... "never. Focus is everything." 

To me one of the biggest elements of failure or simply lack of success lies in most people's lack of ability to stay focused. I'll admit, I love millions of ideas as well and have a tendency to daydream from time to time but being that I have owned four companies, I know the power of focused attention and the deadliness of distractions or dispersals. Focus is everything. 

 

If you know what your company stands for, sells and delivers and have clearly named out or defined your product or service and then defined your goal or vision the only next step for you to take is to do everything that is focused toward executing the goals to attain the vision. Do not get distracted and do not let any other "bright ideas" enter the equation. Focus your time, energy and effort on your goal. 

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Q1 Goals

Being that we are approaching the end of the year, it's time to look at where you want to go. What goals are set or need to be set for the first quarter of 2011? It's time to write them down and then work them backwards to figure out the steps to actually attain them. That's the problem with most goals isn't it? The lack of attainment due to ineffective steps to attain the goal or more specifically, a mis-estimation of the actual amount of effort needed to attain the goals.

When setting sales, revenue and expansion goals for 2011, take a look at what needs to happen to pull them off and then juice up all areas to plan and predict for the short-fall. In other words, if you feel it will take 50 new accounts to attain $500k in new revenue for the year, double or triple that number. We all tend to mis-estimate what is actually needed to pull off a win so plan and predict for it.

We operate off the philosophy of "more" as in:

- more marketing
- more sales
- more prospects in the pipeline
- more people to promote to
- more proposal out
- more... of everything. In other words, actions large enough to compensate for any short fall. (missing our Q1 goals is not an option so we focus on abundance)

Now, in terms of head time to attain the Q1 goals, it's time to start now. If you want to come flying out of the gate for 2011, let's discuss effective strategies to drive new sales and therefore revenue for Q1 2011.

Call us at 727-447-3600 or email our Business Development Director, Jake Sanders at jake@richter10point2.com to find out what we can do to attain your Q1 goals.

Richter10.2 Media Group
http://richter10point2.com

Take charge of your web design and presence....

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The Best Deal

There is a saying in business that goes like this.... "sometimes the best deal you made was the one you didn't". In other words, it's the deal you turned away or left on the table. It's always tempting to take on every single deal that comes your way in business due to the woo of possible profits related to it, but I would advise to you closely look at every deal to ensure the prospect fits your criteria and will truly be profitable for you.

This may mean that if something doesn't feel right about a deal or the prospect is being difficult upfront or it's outside of your core competency or or or... etc, well you may need to get up and walk away from it for the sake of your company. It most likely will be for the best saving you and your company huge amounts of wasted time and effort not to mention money. 

One of the most profitable angles in business is knowing who your target public (audience) is and who is a desirable client to take on and who isn't. If you can peg who isn't you will avoid 90% of all headaches for your company. The ability to spot problem child's early is a vital tool toward a growing and profitable company. Sure, you may end up leaving a few perfectly good deals on the table but you don't need to worry about that. Focus on distilling the deals that don't fully align with your goals, purposes and policies and I assure you that you will be ultimately more profitable and happier. 

 

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The Best Deal

There is a saying in business that goes like this.... "sometimes the best deal you made was the one you didn't". In other words, it's the deal you turned away or left on the table. It's always tempting to take on every single deal that comes your way in business due to the woo of possible profits related to it, but I would advise to you closely look at every deal to ensure the prospect fits your criteria and will truly be profitable for you.

This may mean that if something doesn't feel right about a deal or the prospect is being difficult upfront or it's outside of your core competency or or or... etc, well you may need to get up and walk away from it for the sake of your company. It most likely will be for the best saving you and your company huge amounts of wasted time and effort not to mention money. 

One of the most profitable angles in business is knowing who your target public (audience) is and who is a desirable client to take on and who isn't. If you can peg who isn't you will avoid 90% of all headaches for your company. The ability to spot problem child's early is a vital tool toward a growing and profitable company. Sure, you may end up leaving a few perfectly good deals on the table but you don't need to worry about that. Focus on distilling the deals that don't fully align with your goals, purposes and policies and I assure you that you will be ultimately more profitable and happier. 

 

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The Makings of a Group

The ultimate pursuit in business. To attain a group. A true team. Loyal, focused and driven to attain the goals of the group. It's fantastically difficult to attain but virtually indestructible once created. 

Here are the makings of a group as I see it:

1) Everyone is focused on an agreed upon goal. In other words, there's a mountain and everyone see's it and is focused on climbing it without any deviation or distractions. The goal needs to be completely known throughout the group, intertwined into everyday actions, targets and programs. "What will we do today to take the mountain?" Get a goal, make it known and pursue it.

2) The group thinks in futures, meaning that everyone in the group is focused on their future within the group. Where will we be in 2 years, 5 years, 20 years..... This then breeds loyalty to the group and therefore strengthens the group as a whole. A great group is one that no one would ever want to leave. 

3) The group works as a unit, synchronizing every action and coordinating efforts. No individuals are in the group, only one unit that operates as a unit knowing and acting with every area, division and department fully reliant and responsible for each other. 

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Our Elevator Pitch To You

Richter10.2 media group cost per reach

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Aim Small - Miss Small

There was a line in the movie "The Patriot" where the character Mel Gibson plays is about to ambush a group of British soldiers to save his son. He tells his other two son's to remember what he has taught them.... "aim small miss small"

The other day I was in a meeting with our production team and while we were discussing strategies to attain client reaches, that exact phrase came out of my mouth... "aim small miss small" which lead to this blog.

It's a great concept and relates exactly to business and client growth. Focus your efforts. In other words, identify a segment you want to go after by profiling who you sell to now. Who buys from you? Then take aim at that small segment and go after them heavy. We are not aiming at the whole audience here, we are aiming at your audience. The people most likely to need, want and buy your products or services.

 

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Cost Per Reach Model

Being a Martinet About Neatness...

I was reading an old book by David Ogilvy today and he makes a comment about how he used to work in a professional kitchen in France and the head chef, Mr. Pitard, was a martinet (one who enforces strict discipline) about being neat. He had the chef's clean the kitchen twice per day to ensure the quarters were spotless. David Ogilvy carried many of these lessons over to his agency which grew to be one the best and biggest of his time. 

David's comment for his agency was this, "Today I am a martinet in making my staff keep their offices ship-shape. A messy office creates an atmosphere of sloppiness, and leads to the disappearance of secret papers." 

I tend to agree fully. I am a bit of a neat freak myself and always keep my quarters in ship-shape. I also tend to get a lot more done than the average person, I think partly because I operate in a neat orderly fashion. It's worth taking a look at yourself. Do you keep your office immaculate? Is everything where it should be? If not, I'm willing to bet that you are loosing valuable time and opportunities. 

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Sales, Selling Your People and Getting People to Sell

What role does sales play in your company? Have you recognized the fact that every person and every opportunity is another angle to sell? Let me clarify. Sales is intertwined into every aspect of your company.

You need to sell your products and services to your target market. You then need to sell and keep selling your people on the company, the task at hand and on your new clients that were just closed which motivates them to get the job done and carry forward what was sold. You then need to get people in your company to sell to your clients, your prospective public and the employees to constantly carry your company forward.

While there are many posts/titles in any company, everyone has a role in selling. A smile to a new client walking through the door sells. A welcome email to a new client sells. A follow up call to a client sells. Everyone in the company plays a role in selling to either cultivate new business, cater to and maintain current clients to ensure they are happy and are constantly sold on your company or to keep the team focused and motivated. The executive team, managers and CEO alike all sell the people of the company on the goals, future, mission at hand and on their specific tasks to motivate people to get the job done.

 

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Blockbuster Vs. Redbox

Approximately 5 years ago Blockbuster came up with a campaign to start sending clients late fees to collections. This lead me to start looking at their business model to see how powerful or infallible they really were. After looking at the company model and recent campaigns I realized that they were on their way out. This was in 2005.

Lately I have rented all of my movies from Redbox because it's fast, simple and inexpensive. It just makes a heck of a lot of sense. When comparing the two, Blockbuster had every opportunity in the world to evolve and scoop the market share early for this strategy that Redbox has executed but failed to do so.

I'm not sure if it was arrogance on the part of Blockbuster or lack of insight but they have clearly lost the battle already. I saw recent news that Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy protection and have noticed a few stores closing. Here is where I feel they failed:

1) Instead of focusing on making their process more customer centric focused, they alienated their customers by sending late fees to collections and ultimately ticking off a lot of people

2) They became too focused with trying to make the mail in rentals work in order to compete with Netflix and must of somehow completely missed the entire concept that Redbox executed.

 

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Why I Would Pay for Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin

I recently heard rumblings of news about Twitter potentially charging a fee. Some people have stated that if they did so, they would cancel the service. Silly.... in my opinion. Here's why:

Thus far, the public at large have exchanged (paid for) nothing from Twitter or most social media platforms yet are willing to pay monthly fees for silly expenses like TV to watch a constant inflow of advertisements that attempt to sell products which takes money from them. Twitter, is quite possibly one of the best promotional and sales vehicles that exists today. That statement may not be real for a lot of people but I assure you, it's correct. Let me qualify that statement further.

Twitter gives people the ability to reach out to any target public audience to establish communication with them and develop relationships that can and do result in sales and revenue. By survey, the number one and two sources of new business for any company is word of mouth and referrals. This is precisely what Twitter facilitates. You may not be familiar with Twitter or how it could be the very best promotional and business development tool for your company to employ but nevertheless, there are ways to use it strictly for business development that produces new relationships and sales. Our agency uses it for this very purpose for ourselves and our clients. To us, Twitter is no different than a cell phone. It's a tool to be able to communicate with who we want, when we want so we can develop new business.

Would I be willing to pay for it? Yes! of course. $50 per month? Sure! It helps me produce new business which is a vital aspect to any company. I pay for my office phones, my staff mobile phones, internet connections etc so why wouldn't I pay for Twitter? I can't wrap my wits around why anyone wouldn't pay for it. It's a tiny price to pay for something that could help me produce thousands of dollars per year for our agency.

Now, I actually don't think Twitter will end up charging for their service but will rather take the advertisement supported model but regardless I support it and will absolutely pay for it if they charge a fee, it's worth it.

Consider the intrinsic benefits of these tools before making a rash decision like John Mayer to close his account on Twitter recently. He just locked out 3 million fans from being involved in the conversation. The value of staying in front of your audience is priceless. John made a silly move to close his account and if I was his agent I'd be having a fit right now. The fans are his customers and his obligation to keep happy. No fans means no money. No celebrity is above bottom line numbers being affected by silly moves like that.

If you're thinking Twitter is simply a site to say "your getting a coffee right now...." then let me clarify that you have completely missed the strategy and opportunity with it. It's more than discussing random thoughts and the people who only use it for those purposes think they get and really don't. It's blows the doors off of most promotional outreach strategies if used correctly and will continue to do so. If there was a monthly fee, it would be insignificant compared to the value of it.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group - Follow us @richter102media

We Really "Digg" The New Look!

Recently, we saw Digg reinvent itself and become more streamlined and user-friendly with a major facelift. The changes are really great and it is excellent news for the social community to have this feature back in our bag of tricks.

So, if you're not Diggin' yet, we recommend that you get out there are add yourself into this growing online community!

 Spencer Barnes
Creative Director
Richter10.2 Media Group

Speed

Have you ever truly looked over the value of speed as it relates to your companies growth, strategies, sales, delivery and expansion? I personally rate this as one of the highest valued items in our agency and in any company.

Speed. How fast you can take an idea into execution to make that idea a reality. Speed is your friend and time is your enemy. Speed of delivery. How fast can you deliver your product or service with the highest level of quality. Speed of sales. How fast can you find your audience, prospect, sell and close them to create hoards of new business.

Speed is something you should measure, if you don't already. People talk frequently about competition, what the other companies are doing etc. If you master speed, the truth is, there isn't any real competition out there. Most companies are slow. Most people are slow. Competition is a highly overrated concept. Focus on speed and the "competition" becomes something that you view from a distance scratching your head wondering how and why they don't get it.

Even looking at today's economy, if people and companies operated faster, new companies started fasted, decisions were made faster, speed became a central and crucial element of the marketplace, we wouldn't have a problem. The economy would recover swiftly and new fresh funds would be produced and circulated quickly.

Sometimes simple answers are the hardest to figure out but are ultimately the best solution.

Make a point this week and next to execute tasks faster. Speed up your cycles. Look at how you can take the time out of the equation on situations and your production will increase. Look at all the applications of speed and figure out how to put them into action.

- Speed of sales
- Speed of promotional ideas to get them into action
- Speed of quality delivery
- Speed of internal communications
- Speed of external communications
- Speed of news to the market
- Speed of promotional updates or changes such as websites etc
- Speed of hiring, training and executing actions
- Speed of meetings and phone calls

While this may sound a little overboard - it's not, I assure you. There are slownesses all throughout your personal actions day to day as well as throughout your company and I promise, it's costing you the game. Take speed seriously. Get disciplined about it and your "competition" will become a silly concept. Companies are slow, people are slow ..... take advantage of it.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Get Organized

Just a brief comment on the importance of being organized and having clear systems and administration for your company.

I personally feel that a huge amount of profit is lost in this area. A lot of companies are strong in sales or delivery or customer service but not many are truly strong in administration. In other words, your process, operations, systems etc. Really think it through and make a checklist of the areas that need to be addressed.

Here is a starting point:

- Flow charts for all key areas and functions like sales, delivery, finance posted on the wall so they are viewable for training and drilling

- Progress boards to monitor and track key actions so you can manage and push progress week to week

- Clearly defined positions and actions for each person in written format so your people can study them and become competent for their position

- A form of measurement for all key company indicators that can be tracked weekly to compare from week to week and to set targets for improvement

- Checklists or procedures for handling specific actions like collecting income, closing sales, delivering to new clients in order to have exact sequences that are followed every time without fail

These are just a few basic fundamental points to look into. The basic message here is that time and time again I see companies losing opportunities and income simply by lack of planning, lack of systems and lack of organization which results in chaos and confusion in the company making people look busy when in actual fact it's unproductive business.

Make all systems and functions clearly defined and ensure you have procedures that are organized and orderly in all areas and your production level will go through the roof. It's not time you lack, it's a lack of administration that organizes processes to create more time for you. Inefficiencies are expensive.

Our agency tends to get about a months work done in a week simply because we are organized and can execute and have systems for everything. Don't run around and say your busy and have no time... get organized, be ruthless about your systems and create time in order to focus on doing more to expand your company. Dissect your processes and jam in orderly operations and you'll see what I mean.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Title Vs. Task

What is a title to you? The title of where you work whether it is CEO, VP Sales, Creative Director, CFO etc, what does it mean to you? If your thinking it has anything to do with power or importance then you have completely missed the mark and have lost the true purpose of your job and position within your company.

A title is not for power or importance or making anyone feel under you.... it's a description of where you are in your company and what your responsibilities are. It's a function. Now I realize this sounds a little self explanatory but many people seem to mis-use and mis-apply their titles which I find to be a shame to the company in general.

When you are a CEO or any position for that matter, that title simply is a label for your function. It means that the day to day tasks related to that title are your responsibility and your team relies on you to get it done. That's it. If you thought it was anything more than that, you've lost the focus and true spirit of business.

Think about the tasks and functions that go under your position or title. This is the only importance associated with your title. It dictates your job and reveals your tasks so everyone knows who is who in the company and who will handle what functions. Think of your company and position like a sport.... the goalie is supposed to stop attempts on goal, period. The goalie is not so he can be respected or act important (even though he is) or to be used for power.... it's simply a duty.

Take a look at your post, position or title and ask yourself whether you are exclusively handling the functions for your team to get the job done and whether you are making a valuable contribution to your team for the responsibilities that fall under your position. If you do this, your company will do better and if you can get others to do the same, the company will boom.

Focus on the task at hand, the functions that need to be done for the title and execute, execute, execute and forget the importance of it all.

The Red Bull Way

When it comes to promo and getting the word out.... there is a standard and a bar which you can measure yourself by.... it's called Red Bull. Now there is a company that thinks BIG. They have plastered their brand, PR, Marketing and advertising absolutely everywhere.

I guarantee you that if it were not for their unbelievably HUGE promo efforts, the company would not be what they are today (which happens to be a billion dollar annual revenue producing machine) The drink is not exactly tasty. That factor has no role in their success though.

I admire this company for their sheer volume of promo and in their creative ways to get the word out.

So, what can we learn? Well, when looking at your promo efforts I would recommend that you address the volume and angles. In other words, what are you doing right now? How much promo, outflow, avenues are you using daily, weekly and monthly to make your companies products and/or services known. I tend to think that most companies grossly underestimate what they need to do. Companies get so focused on other things that are important but not nearly as important as driving in new business so heavily that your only major problem will be... how do you manage the inflow and deliver and service it?

Revenue should never be your concern. New clients should never be your concern. These things will come in floods if your promotion and sales efforts are actually sufficient and not sufficient per your normal standard.... I mean Red Bull type thinking.

Make a list and focus on how you can create a Red Bull size strategy to get the word out. Get absolutely crazy about promotion and driving in new business. Then focus on executing the strategy in an obsessive fashion to drive new customers/clients in the door. From there, you can then figure out how to deliver, how to service, quality etc but all of those items come after you have promoted, made your company known, gotten new sales, clients, customers etc. Your first priority should be on your front lines.... promotion!

When your scratching your head wondering why sales are down, why revenue is down etc. - look no further than your efforts to get the word out about your company to actively get in front of your audience and therefore cultivate new opportunities. That is the WHY.

So this week, think like Red Bull. They are a company that has gone completely berserk when it comes to promo.... and it's working like crazy. Make a list of new angles to drive in new business and execute, execute, execute....

- Robert Cornish
Richter10.2 Media Group
http://richter10point2.com

Be a ball hog - for your clients sake...

Have you ever heard someone say "the ball is in their court" when explaining where a certain situation stands?

If your a true professional and want to bend over backwards to serve your client then you will adopt the philosophy that the ball is never in your clients court. You want to control the ball to control the outcome.

To fully service your client, it requires total control of each situation and task which allows you to get the desired results you are focused in order to create happy clients.

If you have ever been to an incredible hotel or a company that truly has their delivery, service and overall operations completely under their control - the outcome is that as a client, you are very happy and feel well served.

Do your clients a favor and never let the ball be in their court, they don't want it.

- Robert Cornish
Richter10.2 Media Group

Find me at http://whywebpr.com/robertcornish

Email

In a few recent emails I have received I have noticed a couple of items that in my opinion hurts the communication. Here they are:

1) The font of the email was small making it difficult to read. I had to actually zoom in to make it larger.


2) The email had no signature with the bare essentials of a phone number, email address and any other key form of communication

These two items can have a serious impact on your bottom-line. When the font of the email is small, you are either inconveniencing your reader or the email is being deleted altogether by busy people who can't be bothered which means your message never arrived at all. When you don't have a phone and email address and basic contact details in your email signature, you are simply cutting your own throat by reducing the chances that anyone will communicate with you.

Many times I have referred back to emails for contact details only to find out the person has not included their very basic forms of communication in their email signature and therefor I have to figure out how to contact them which again, is an inconvenience.

Be smart. Make it easy for people to reach you and make it easy for people to read your message. By simply handling these two items, it will increase your communication flows and ensure more business is coming your way.

I hear a lot of people talk about "so and so never returned my email..." or "I sent an email and never heard back..." if this describes you.... I would strongly advise you review the above two items and ensure that:

1) Your emails are simple and clear with larger font

2) You have your essential forms of communication in your email signature

Our agency has developed something called a Social Media Press Kit which you may want to use for your email signature as well, here's a link - http://whywebpr.com

Happy emailing....

- Robert Cornish

What your client needs not wants

Recently we had a situation at our agency that reminded me of the importance of delivering what the client needs rather than what they may think they want.

While clients play a major role in decisions and influence in your companies actions mostly because every company is trying to please their clients and keep them happy in order to create long term relationships, the truth is that many times in order to actually please the client and deliver the results you must focus on what the client really needs rather than what they are saying they want.

Let me clarify, a client requests you change your strategy because they have a few ideas that they want to include and really focus on. You then deviate off of the path that you absolutely know works and know gets results in a effort to serve the client and address their wants. The results then reflect the deviation off course from what you know you should have done, further, the client is not happy which is bad for business altogether.

Had you held your position and only sold and delivered the client on what you knew was successful, what gets results and what was really what the client needed, you would ultimately end up with a happy client and a great long term relationship.

Focus on what you do as a company that you know works and gets results and then identify what the client really needs in order to address a problem and sell and deliver only that. By sticking to your guns sort to speak and delivering a product or service that handles your clients actual needs (as long as you have correctly identified them) will guarantee you positive results and happy clients. Handle your clients needs only and don't be persuaded to deviate to focus on wants that you know will take the strategy off course with results that will not be the desired outcome.

As the saying goes.... "Find a need.... fill a need"

- Robert Cornish

Busy or Unorganized

Ok, this one may push a few people's buttons but I thought I should write it anyway. I frequently hear the words "busy" in business and felt the need to address this and challenge others to get honest with themselves.

I personally happen to be a very organized person but even I fall behind from time to time and need to pick up the slack to catch up and stay on track. I don't blame it on "busy" though, I blame it on me being disorganized and not keeping on track and handling my cycles one at a time until done...done...done.

We all have the same amount of time in the day and we are all "busy" but it's no excuse to let anything slide. Besides, the people you are telling that you are "busy" don't buy it anyway.

So get organized and call it what it is - lack of organization. Your simply not getting your tasks done on time and are wasting time during the day or being inefficient. Organized and productive business people can get a spectacular amount of tasks and actions done in a day and while you are blaming your disorganization on "busy" you competition and prospective clients that you can't seem to get around to are out-tasking you or bypassing you.

So my challenge to you is for you to stop using the excuse of "busy" and simply call it what it is, unorganized, and then address it for what it is and work toward the solutions. How can you get more organized? How can you be more efficient during the day? How can you get more done? etc etc. Focus on ways to handle your organizational problems like using a daily targets plan and check off as done or not multi-tasking anymore and just focus on doing the task at hand and then go to the next and the next and the next. A sort of "Get it done, handle it now, what's next?" type of system.

If you are truly honest with yourself on this, you will agree that you are not actually busy, you're disorganized.

Here are a few ways you could be more organized:

1) Make a daily agenda with targets for the day that must be hit
2) Handle each target daily one by one, completing each one fully before doing the next
3) Schedule and/or budget your time on your calendar to make sure you are being fully productive with your day
4) Knock off all wasted time during the day such as office chit chat, browsing the web aimlessly, jumping from task to task and not fully completing any of them etc etc
5) Check your email only after a task is done. IE. Do a target fully and then check email and handle and then go back and do the next target
6) Don't accept interruptions. Tell people you are in the middle of a task and will come see them as soon as it is completed. Then do so and go back to the next target right after

These simple steps will help immensely. I would also recommend you make a list of all of the ways you are being unorganized or inefficient during the day to look at each one and handle each one appropriately.

Time is precious, why waste it and get stuck into indefinite "busy" mode?

- Robert Cornish

A Lead Vs. A Reach

We recently introduced our Pay Per Performance model which takes all of the risk off the clients and strongly motivates our team to produce results. While discussing this over and over with many prospective clients, the question of a lead vs. a reach has come up frequently and so I wanted to write a brief note to clear it up.

While it’s easy to confuse a reach with a lead, they are distinctly different, one supremely better than the other. By the explanation below, I'll let you be the judge to decide which one is better...

Lead: It’s just that - a lead. It’s someone that may have some interest. It’s a possible business connection or a possible business development opportunity.

Reach: It’s someone reaching, interested, with a relationship already established. They already know about you, have heard about you and have a general understanding of what you do and now they want more. It’s the diamond of prospective clients that you wish you had daily.

Now let's look at the dictionary definition of each as taken from The American Heritage College dictionary:

Lead: 9. To begin or open with. To go first or guide. 3a. Information pointing toward a possible solution; 7a. The introductory portion.

Reach: 4a. To succeed in getting in contact with or communicating with. b. To succeed in having an effect on. 3a. Range of understanding; comprehension. 1. To stretch out or put forth; extend 3. To arrive at; attain

So from the above definitions, it's clear that a lead is the start, an introductory part or a beginning and a reach would be much further along than that and in fact is closer toward the end of the cycle. A reach entails someone reaching out for something. The introduction and start have all taken place and now it's at the point of stretching or reaching for more.

So as it relates to business development and new client procurement, which would you rather have?

Our agency exclusively deals with reaches for our clients... not leads. Our performance model is based on number of reaches which to me, is the most valuable thing to our company and and our clients companies.

For more information about our services, here is a link to a presentation on SlideShare - http://www.slideshare.net/Richter10point2/richter102-elevator-pitch-3791206

Richter10.2 Media Group Elevator Pitch

Are You In Communication?

Over and over I notice many people and companies are out of communication, or at least have lethargic communication systems. What I mean by that is that they are slow to the draw, slow to reply, slow to take action or don’t take any action at all.

Communication is the very essence of business as well as the economy. The more you can create and the faster you can get it going, the more revenue flows.

Currently it seems there is quite a problem with communication. As a business owner myself, I find the importance of communication to be extremely high. I demand from my staff that a lot of communication go out to the world and more specifically, to our target audience. I also demand that we handle communication rapidly, as fast as we can, and keep our flows moving fast.

If I get an email related to someone interested in our company, we instantly reply to move the cycle forward. Phone calls are returned the same day and everyone in the company has a mobile device that allows for immediate response via email at any given time. Additionally, we developed the Social Media Press Kit (http://whywebpr.com/smpk) for the purpose of making ourselves more accessible in every imaginable way, be it text message, email, Skype, Facebook, Linkedin or to download our communication details through a vCard.

We rate communication highly. However I have noticed that not everyone operates this way. People delay in getting back via email or phone. They are slow to communicate many times, if at all. This type of operating procedure hurts them and their company. Procrastination has no place in the business world. Slowness is not a strength and being out of communication is damaging.

Take a look at your communication systems this week and test them. Do you immediately respond to emails? Phone calls? How much communication are you sending out to the world daily? Your company? Is that enough?

If handled, your revenue will skyrocket. Get yourself and your company into communication with the world. Send communication out, even if you simply start by sending out 6 hand-written letters per week or 10 emails to introduce yourself to people you would want to do business with. Get communication flowing and fast.

Robert Cornish
CEO
Richter10.2 Media Group

Richter10.2 elevator pitch

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Richter10.2 elevator pitch

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Is your email signature working against you?

I have seen so many emails that don't have any contact information in the signature area and it provoked me to blog about it.

I can't tell you how many times I have needed to contact someone and one of the first places I look for their contact information is their email signature. When it doesn't have all of your details, it really hinders and cuts your communications ability. Think about prospective clients that want to do business with you and focus on making it easy for them to do so.

Business is about communication and the more you can make yourself accessible, the better. Not only do I have all of my pertinent information in my email signature, I also have what is called a Social Media Press Kit (http://whywebpr.com/robertcornish) which comes with an email signature button so anyone can click on it and download your vCard, as well as access every other angle of getting in communication with you.

Make it easy to communicate with you and make yourself accessible and I promise it will help develop more business for you.

-Robert Cornish

Target Public

I stress that you fully investigate and identify and define your target public for your company because once done, you will have a whole new view on promotion and sales. Many companies don't take the time to really analyze who their exact target public is.

You have to know exactly who your target public is, here are a few things to consider:

1) What area of the country or the world have they come from? Review all of your current and past clients and tally the results to have a clear picture of where they come from and where you need to focus your efforts

2) What sectors or industries have they come from?

3) What is their annual revenue size?

4) Who are the people within the target public companies that you typically need to deal with?

5) What are their typical needs?

Once you have the above items pegged, you begin to work smarter. You can focus your time and efforts on what has worked in the past and who your real target public is. PR or public relations is about reaching out to an exact target public, not everyone and anyone, an exact one. When we can reach an exact target public and communicate what they need, we get a response. This then results in more business.

Why spend any time prospecting in Arizona and going after recruiting professionals if you have no history closing clients in that area and have not had success in that area?

Focus on your target public! You will get more business and have more success to the degree that this is full defined.... Know your target public and go straight after them, they already need and want your products or services anyway.

-Robert Cornish

Can April Fools Mean Better Productivity?

The methods used to handle April Fools are indeed as varied as people experiencing it. Some live for the prank and love to laugh and others just wish it would go away, but what about in the workplace? On one hand, you have stifling seriousness and on the other is all the endless ways people think of to goof off. Funnily enough, both end up in exactly the same place; low productivity and low morale.

As with all things, I'm sure there is a happy medium (pun intended). While it is certainly true that workplace matters rarely reflect the thrill of sinking a long putt or landing a marlin, it is just as true that if you view the tasks in your day as enjoyable you will get a lot more done.

In my own workplace I have watched an enormous shift in our productivity on this interesting point. Last year we had eight staff in one department who were delivering a management service. Things were quite serious on a daily basis and it was a "grind" to get everything finished each week. A year later, we have a team of 4 doing more work than the eight could and finishing it by Thursday afternoon most weeks.

The difference? We got organized and started having some fun! We decided that things weren't quite that serious and with that were willing to mix things up and evolve so we could get it right. Cracking jokes is certainly not going to magically make a business an overnight success, but injecting a little levity into the average day WILL make a difference.

Posted via web from richter102mediagroup's posterous

Can April Fools Mean Better Productivity?

The methods used to handle April Fools are indeed as varied as people experiencing it. Some live for the prank and love to laugh and others just wish it would go away, but what about in the workplace? On one hand, you have stifling seriousness and on the other is all the endless ways people think of to goof off. Funnily enough, both end up in exactly the same place; low productivity and low morale.

As with all things, I'm sure there is a happy medium (pun intended). While it is certainly true that workplace matters rarely reflect the thrill of sinking a long putt or landing a marlin, it is just as true that if you view the tasks in your day as enjoyable you will get a lot more done.

In my own workplace I have watched an enormous shift in our productivity on this interesting point. Last year we had eight staff in one department who were delivering a management service. Things were quite serious on a daily basis and it was a "grind" to get everything finished each week. A year later, we have a team of 4 doing more work than the eight could and finishing it by Thursday afternoon most weeks.

The difference? We got organized and started having some fun! We decided that things weren't quite that serious and with that were willing to mix things up and evolve so we could get it right. Cracking jokes is certainly not going to magically make a business an overnight success, but injecting a little levity into the average day WILL make a difference.

Posted via web from richter102mediagroup's posterous

We Don't Cost a Dime...

There are many business items that are expenses which require a full financial review as well as budget analysis but we don't happen to be one of them.

We don't cost our clients a dime, in fact we typically make them at least 3 times what they pay us.

Think of us like a sports agent - we're here to make you money. That's our full time job!

Since I spend quite a bit of my time meeting with prospective clients and then following up to get them to move forward with a strategy, it always seems to boggle my mind when a deal is a touch slow or it's being treated as an expense.

When we have an opportunity in our agency to invest money into something that will make us more money, I personally clear the approval lines and get the finance people to cut the check because income lines need to be lightening fast and disbursement lines for expenses and budget related items need to be relatively slow and thorough.

My point here is this, review every financial item within your company and separate them in two columns:

1. Expenses that cost money but are required and related.
2. Expenses that drive revenue.

Once this is done you can prioritize and make the 2nd column items urgent. Buying a few desks can wait - put the urgency on income related spending!

The Art of the Follow Up....

These days people are busy.... Busier than ever. This isn't to say more productive than ever, just busier. They are on iphones, facebook, downloading apps, juggling work tasks and projects, trying to keep their heads above the ocean of emails, handling personal problems, dealing with company problems and the list goes on.

Call it dispersed or distracted or even unorganized but whatever the case, your communication to them is not impinging or making an impact or getting a response. Well, before you get too discouraged realize that the above listed items are diverting your message and causing chaos which is part of the problem to why you are not getting a response.

Too often I see salespeople burn deals they are working on simply because they have "followed up" and not gotten a response therefore the deal is cold or dead. While this seems rather logical... It is not. You must keep clearly in mind the facts above that people are busy and easily distracted.

Your job is to be organized for yourself and your prospect to follow up diligently over and over to stay on the prospects radar and keep interesting the prospect until you have gotten a response and can move the deal forward.

Following up could be by phone, email, Linkedin messages or connection requests, Skype, facebook, Twitter or anything else. Just focus on getting yourself in front of the prospect and on their radar however appropriate in order to keep reminding them until they are ready to commit time and energy to whatever it is that you want to discuss or propose.

I apply the above and consistently get comments of appreciation for my diligent follow up because without it.... They would have forgot. This isn't to toot my own horn but rather to point out that while it may sometimes seem like the prospect is not interested... The fact is, they are but they are simply too busy or distracted to respond. So always be diligent and follow up until your prospect is ready to discuss, this will dramatically improve your sales.

All things to all people...

The thought of being all things to all people consistently mystifies me. I see agencies who are clearly traditional PR houses and have extensive expertise in traditional PR and media, recently add things like social media, new media, seo etc etc. I also hear these same agencies tell their prospective clients things like "oh, ya... we handle that too" or "yes, we can take care of the social". My first question is .... What is "the social" - please define.

So far I have only seen people and companies that are very good at a niche do extremely well and have yet to see watered down companies do well at everything. Michael Jordan is an incredible basketball player.... But baseball.... Soccer.... ?

Companies that focus on what they are good at and know in and out do very well and are truly the companies to deal with for a specific need. If I have a need or a want regarding men's suiting, it's a certainty that I will get better knowledge, customer service and recommendations from a niche fine mens suit store rather than going to macy's. While macy's is a good store and has a wide variety, you won't find the very best in mens suits or in expertise regarding mens suits.

If you need a litigation attorney.... go get a litigation attorney and don't try to get a general law firm that possibly can handle your litigation needs and since you are hiring them anyway... maybe they can also do your legal papers and corporate filings and on and on. This strategy will lead to mediocre results and if that is what you are searching for... well you can find that by the hoards. However if you want the very best solution to handle your exact needs or problem, my suggestion is to go with the niche specialized people or companies. It's a smart move all around.

You wouldn't put all of your HR work and recruitment work on your treasury or admin people because they are somehow related would you?

I would much rather be surrounded by incredible niche people and companies that I work with that do incredible work and get the desired outcome I am going after because they know their stuff rather than trying to find the one company that is trying to be everything to everyone jamming every service under one roof trying to make it all fit rather than truly focusing on what they are good at.

Adding a face to personal relations...

While having breakfast at Paradise Bakery today I noticed a person in business attire come in and look around the entire room clearly trying to locate the person he was supposed to be meeting with. He looked over at me as if I might be the person he needed to meet with and then walked over to another person in the restaurant and said "Hi" and asked if he was Tony and the person replied no. Looking puzzled and slightly awkward, he then decided to sit down and wait.

This sort of thing happens everyday. Meetings take place in local restaurants every single day with people who have never met and don't know anything about one another including the way they look.

This made me immediately realize the value and importance of the Social Media Press Kit. I personally feel every single business person should have one. The above scenario would not have occurred because they both would know what one another looked like and also a little about each person which would give the relationship a head start and allow them to get into business without the awkwardness upfront.

The Social Media Press Kit is a relationship tool that is meant for this very type of circumstance. It includes contact information, social media profiles so one can learn about you, video introductions or a promo video about the company, a bio with vital information, real time twitter updates and photos for the person the SMPK belongs to which helps add a face to the name.

Here are two links that explain it:

http://whywebpr.com/smpk

http://whywebpr.com

It's such a simple tool to have and use that builds relationships and improves overall communication which ultimately is the essence of business. Oh, and if you would like to start a relationship with me, please visit my Social Media Press Kit here - http://whywebpr.com/robertcornish

PR as a Sales Tool

While many people view PR as a tool to change public opinion, get in the news or be featured in an article or even to put on an event, we view it and use it entirely as a relationship and sales tool.

All disciplines go through changes over time. PR was started around 1928 and has shifted in the overall discipline and practices over the years. With new media aggressively emerging and the ability to reach millions of people through the web, PR needed to change as well.

To us, PR means communication with a specific target public to build relations that result in reach for the purpose of sales. Sales is about relationships and making oneself known to the people they want to be known to. In other words, you have to first become a known quantity in the mind of the public you are going after and then you have to develop a relationship, get them interested and cause a reach that can be worked into a sale. It's a new type of PR. We call it Web Media PR.

The goals are as follows:

1) Making the client known to the target public to create the initial relationship and gain interest

2) Creating tools using new media that shorten the sales cycle dramatically which can include case studies, videos, Social Media Press Kits, Sites, Press Releases, Testimonials, social media strategies etc

3) Increasing the probabilities that the target public will decide to do business with the client therefore solidifying sales and revenue from the strategy.

Using what we have coined as Web Media PR can be your strongest sales strategy yet.
We have found one of the biggest problems companies face is not being known by their target audience and not having enough new prospective clients to speak to and sell their products or services which ultimately is the main source of their revenue problems. This is what we handle with our strategies.

Our goal as a company is to consistently deliver new reaches to our clients that improves their sales.

Here is a link to our resource page that has downloadable PDF's with case studies and testimonials to show the results of our services - http://www.richter10point2.com/resources.php

For more information about a full Web Media PR strategy, contact us the following ways:

Richter10.2 Media Group
http://richter10point2.com
info@richter10point2.com

Are you in communication?

Over and over I notice many people and companies are out of communication or at least have lethargic communication systems. What I mean by that is that they are slow to the draw. Slow to reply. Slow to take action or don't take any action at all.

Communication is the very essence of business as well as the economy. The more you can create and the faster you can get it going, the more revenue flows.

Currently it seems there is quite a problem with communication. As a business owner myself, I value the importance of communication to be extremely high. I demand from my staff that a lot of communication go out to the world and more specifically, to our target audience. I also demand that we handle communication rapidly, as fast as we can to handle it and keep our flows moving fast.

If I get an email related to someone interested in our company, we instantly reply to move the cycle forward. Phone calls are returned the same day and everyone in the company has a mobile device that allows for immediate response via email at any given time. Additionally, we developed the Social Media Press Kit (http://whywebpr.com/smpk) for the purpose of making ourselves more accessible in every imaginable way be it text message, email, Skype, Facebook, Linkedin or to download our communication details through a vCard.

We rate communication highly. However I have noticed that not everyone operates this way. People delay in getting back via email or phone. They are slow to communicate many times if at all. This type of operating procedures hurts them and their company. Procrastination has no place in the business world. Slowness is not a strength and being out of communication is damaging.

Take a look at your communication systems this week and test them. Do you immediately respond to emails? Phone calls? How much communication are you sending out to the world daily? Your company? Is that enough?

If handled, your revenue will skyrocket. Get yourself and your company into communication with the world. Send communication out, even if you simply start by sending out 6 hand-written letters per week or 10 emails to introduce yourself to people you would want to do business with. Get communication flowing and fast.



-Robert Cornish
CEO Richter10.2 Media Group

Strength in Team

This is a little off topic for me especially since most of my blogs relate to my business however, I am in New York traveling on business right now and was thinking about the general state of the economy and country in general as I passed magazine stands with our President's face among other things.

I had a thought or viewpoint about leadership in general. To me, running a country is similar to running a company as a CEO. Since I am the CEO of my company it brought me to thinking about the divided nature of our country as it relates to our political leaders. A red vs. blue sort of mentality.

As a leader or CEO or anyone in charge of a group of any kind, the thing you need or want is a team. Constructive input. Solutions put forth to problems and a coordinated effort to attain the given goals and strategy. The last thing in the world you would want as a CEO or leader of any type would be people on your team that are against you and your ideas as well as your plan, causing counter-intention to your initiatives and not contributing to the solution but making more of a problem. I can say with confidence that if I had someone in my company actively against me, it would take very little hesitation of any kind to remove that person or people immediately from the company.

Our President or political leaders cannot fire anyone within the country for obvious reasons so they have to make due with what they have.

I personally feel our country would be strengthened dramatically as well as the economic climate in general if we became a unified group or team to support our leadership that WE as a country voted in by majority vote, even if we don't associate with that party. Rather than nit pick, we figure out solutions and work on sending them to our political leaders or getting involved in some regard to work on and focus on the solution. If there is something we don't like, work to change it while supporting the current initiatives and our President to make the very best possible outcome we can attain.

Why, as a country, do we highlight our President's flaws rather than work to assist them or strengthen their strengths? I can name strengths for George W. Bush as I can name strengths for Barrack Obama. Let's work to make the country better and focus on what can be done and what we can help our leadership with rather than propelling problems and complaints. The day we fully operate as a coordinated team is the day this country will truly flourish.

Teamwork has proven successful countless times be it in basketball or any sport, companies, families or running a country. So I propose a challenge to anyone reading this, think about how YOU can support our leadership and make up for any weaknesses or help to correct non-optimum situations and how YOU can be the best team player for the good and purpose of making the country better overall. Let's all play our part to handle the economy while supporting the strategy, building businesses, suggesting solutions and working as a true group, a true team. To me, this is what is needed now regardless of personal disagreements with the leadership or affiliated party or who you voted for. What can you do to help our leaders to make this country better and attain a huge win overall? I own a company which consistently hires new fresh talent and helps other companies expand aggressively, that's my part. I'm not perfect, but I don't complain, I come up with better solutions to improve my teamwork and team.

- Robert Cornish

Social Media Press Kit

I had a call with a friend today who I asked to review the Social Media Press Kit (SMPK) since he is an opinion leader in branding and he had a flurry of questions. The questions lead to this blog, I thought I would clear a few things up.

A Social Media Press Kit is a proprietary tool we (Richter10.2 Media Group) created. It's a relationship tool and a sales tool. We designed it for a sales rep, executive, PR person, business development director or consultant to use to highlight themselves and get their own personal PR in.

It's a real tool. Anyone can access you easily by sending you an email through the SMPK, Skyping you via a Skype call or instant message or even sending you a text message directly to your mobile phone.

Sales and PR is and always has been about relationships and having connections. The SMPK is the very essence of this.

You can see real time twitter updates, a personal bio, a simple video introduction or a company video promo. The SMPK has a personal photo slideshow to help make it more personal as well.

With email signatures getting bigger these days with people adding all of their links to theior social media pages as well, we solved that problem by creating an email button that anyone can click on and go right to the Social Media Press Kit.

It's truly everything you need in one nice and simple package that presents you and your company well and helps develop relationships for new opportunities.

Here is a video we created - http://whywebpr.com/smpk

Here is the webpage that we created to demo the Social Media Press Kit - http://whywebpr.com

Having one created for yourself is simple, it takes about 3-5 days and can be custom designed to fit your look and feel and have buttons that relate to your needs. We have a simple online questionnaire that provides the content we need and from there we can have it produced.

You get a Social Media Press Kit custom designed for your needs, an email signature button to use and all of your social media profiles linked to the SMPK neatly designed. Pretty great!

The Power of Introduction

Defining the parameters of the platforms you use to establish and maintain you relationships online is vital to making your products and services known to the correct public. Consider the total time, money and energy you put into marketing your business. Are you satisfied with your results? Are you reaching those people most likely to be interested in your products and services?

"Work smarter, not harder" is especially applicable in the social media universe. Connecting to any random person on social media, sending out mass marketing style emails and blasting blogs constantly, but never taking the time to really introduce yourself to the correct audience is definitely working hard, not smart. Social media is full of people waiting to be found. Take the time to find the appropriate person and introduce yourself. You may not have a network of 23,000 friends and fans in the next six weeks, but what would that actually accomplish in terms of new business in the door anyway?

Building relationships with the correct public for your company can be easy once you make a sincere introduction. A great rule to live by is to only send out the exact kind of message you yourself would like to receive as a busy professional. Start simply, with basic information about who you are, what you do, and find out what might be needed or wanted from you by the person receiving the message. And don't forget to invite them to respond in kind, and when they do, really listen and acknowledge what they're communicating in return.

Selling your services and products to someone you've taken the time to forge a genuine connection with brings in more business, and is more enjoyable to both parties. Leave the spam to spammers. Life and business are about people. Always remember there's another "you" on the receiving end of every communication and you'll see great results from all social media has to offer.

The tough part of sales

Making your companies products or services known to the correct target public (audience) in order to gain interest and reach has been traditionally the most difficult part of sales.

How do your prospective clients find out about your company? How do you make the initial contact or the initial introduction to cultivate interest?

Times have changed. What used to work – going to companies door to door to get an appointment or cold calling a specific prospect to try to get 2 minutes are not as effective as they once were. New rules of business etiquette have interupted these strategies. People are busy and they don’t want to be interupted with univited visits or random phone calls.

We have experienced over and over that the name of the game is relationships and making smart introductions to the right people. The online world and more specifically, new media, has created an avenue to replace old systems of making introductions and building relationships with new ways that are generally acceptable in this day and age.

You don’t have to email blast 1000 people to hope for a response rate of 1-2% – you only need to make one connection, one introduction to the right person with the right message to penetrate and gain interest and reach.

The methods of reaching out to prospective clients and making your company a known quantity as well as sparking interest have changed. Successfully adopted and utilized correctly will dramatically change your sales as well.