“Thank you” Mr. Broughton for creating The Art of the Sale book illustrating the virtues of the sales profession. As Mr. Broughton points out, Dr. Seuss (real name: Theodor Seuss Geisel) wrote in condescending tones about salespeople…despite the fact that he was an unabashed salesperson for his Dr. Seuss series of books. Mr. Broughton points out that Ivy League business schools often extol the virtue of ethics and leadership in sales without expounding on the “art of the sale.”
Ethics and leadership are the foundation of a sale. Products and services don’t move, though, until you take the next steps of informing and asking for the order. Selling eBooks is no different.
Why are so many authors lousy salespeople? No excuse. Now is the time to get out of your seat and start spreading the good news about your book creation!
If you write a quality manuscript, go to all the effort (and it is effort) to write an eBook (same goes for print book, CD, Audiobook…), why can’t you be proud enough to announce your new book to the world and ask each and every person to enjoy your creation? I’m proud of How to Market Your EBooks (Over 300 Resources to Help Authors Sell EBooks) and know, from testimonials and comments, readers are benefiting from my eBook creation.
Take several days to reflect on who can most benefit from your book creation. Then, take the first few steps to increase your book sales by contacting two of these groups you’ve identified that can benefit from your creation.
In a relaxing, “want to help you” way, offer to share your book with these groups to help them with the challenges they face. At the least, people you contact will appreciate your wiliness to help. At the best, you’ll make book sales. Either way, you both win!
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
April 2012, the Department of Justice sued Apple and five book publishers accusing them of conspiring to set ebook prices. This is a big event for consumers and publishers. Here’s what you need to know now.
“Agency Pricing” is at the Core
Agency pricing allows book publishers to set the prices of their ebooks, while the retailer (the “agent”) takes a commission. Under the agency model, the publisher is the only party that can discount ebooks, and an ebook’s price must be the same across all retailers. The “agency model” is different from the “wholesale model,” in which publishers set a book’s suggested retail price and retailers can discount the books.
In 2010, Apple negotiated with the big-six publishers — Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Random House — to make their ebooks available on the iPad, through the iBookstore. All of those publishers except Random House adopted the agency model.
Who are the “Players?”
Apple and the first five of the “big-six” publishers to adopt agency pricing (Random House excluded) are the defendants in a number of lawsuits.
Big daddy of lawsuits: the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, 16 states sued Apple and the big-five in April, claiming that agency pricing cost consumers $100 million. These lawsuits come on top of over a dozen class-action lawsuits, the first of which was filed last August, and a formal antitrust investigation by the European Commission.
Why Sue?
The lawsuits accuse Apple and the big-five of colluding to raise ebook prices. The suits do not allege that agency pricing itself is illegal; rather, they allege that the big-five and Apple illegally conspired to adopt the model all at once in order to retaliate against Amazon’s habit of discounting.
Why Publishers Like Agency Pricing?
Book publishers like “agency pricing,” saying it ensures a more competitive marketplace because no one retailer (e.g., Amazon) is able to deeply discount ebooks and thus gain a monopolistic position. Publishers argue that in the time since agency pricing was adopted, the ebook market has become more vibrant because smaller retailers are able to sell ebooks at the same price as Amazon.
What Do Publishers and Apple Plan?
Three of the big-five — HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette — agreed to settle the case with the Justice Department. Macmillan and Penguin will fight the lawsuit. Apple has not yet released a statement.
How Do Retailers Feel?
Amazon is happy. If agency pricing goes away, the company will be able to discount e-books the way it discounts print books and can likely return to its pre-agency pricing tactic of pricing New York Times bestsellers at $9.99.
Barnes & Noble had no comment, but the Justice Departments’ lawsuit and publisher settlements are not good news for the nation’s largest bookstore chain. Agency pricing prevents Amazon from undercutting Barnes & Noble on big-six publishers’ ebook prices.
What’s Up Internationally?
The European Commission announced this afternoon that it received proposals from Apple, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Holtzbrinck (Macmillan’s parent company) to bring the antitrust investigations to a close. Penguin, the fifth company under investigation in the EU, did not send such a proposal.
What’s Next?
The three publishers who settled — HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster — are required to end their current publishing contracts with Apple but may enter into new ones.
The 16 states that filed suit in April seek “consumer restitution.” Hachette and HarperCollins reached settlements with the states today and agreed to pay $52 million in damages. These damages are calculated based on the number of states participating and the number of ebooks sold in each state.
Macmillan and Penguin will be going to court to fight the Justice Department’s allegations. Apple has not yet released a statement announcing its plans but will likely fight the suit as well.
Agency pricing does not go away. Random House is not involved in any of the investigations and is free to continue selling ebooks under the agency model, as are any other publishers who adopted the model later. Macmillan and Penguin will continue to sell their ebooks under the agency model.
What Does This Mean for Consumers?
Readers may see lower prices on ebooks from Hachette, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins in Amazon’s Kindle Store, and possibly in other ebookstores as well. They may also see those publishers’ books temporarily removed from Apple’s iBookstore.
The results of these lawsuits will affect the way consumers buy, and retailers sell, ebooks immediately. As an ebook author, all we can do for now is to write quality ebooks and build my distribution channels.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
EBook markets are heating up. Barnes & Noble started the Nook e-reader and now Microsoft is coming in to see if they can help Barnes & Noble take eBook production and distribution to the next level…including “internationalize.”
Microsoft is investing more than $605 million in Barnes & Noble’s Nook digital-book business, with an eye toward going to battle with the iPad and Amazon’s Kindle.
Riding the Fence
From one bookstore to a bookselling public company, Barnes & Noble has been trying to navigate the world of paper books and eBooks.
Here’s the Nook made in heaven outline:
• Microsoft will have a 17.6% stake in a new subsidiary for the Nook and Barnes’ college-text businesses in a transaction that values them at $1.7 billion. That compares with Barnes & Noble’s current market capitalization of about $791 million.
• Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 8, is coming soon to market and is designed to run on both tablets and computers. Microsoft has lagged both Apple and Amazon.com in the tablet and e-reader markets. The Nook, like Amazon’s Kindle, runs on Android software.
• Barnes & Noble will create an e-reading application for Microsoft-powered mobile devices and computers. The two companies will share revenue from sales of e-books and other content.
• Because of the Microsoft investment, the two parties will settle their patent litigation. In the future, Barnes & Noble and the new subsidiary will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft’s patents for the Nook.
For Barnes & Noble, Microsoft’s investment will mean access to more international markets, since Windows 8 is used across the globe. Now, besides the Nook device, the Nook book-buying application is available only on iPad and Android devices.
The stakes for both companies are high. Microsoft allowed Apple’s iPad a two-year head start to acquire sales from consumer- and business-computer users. Barnes & Noble has played “second-fiddle” to Amazon’s Kindle and needs to expand market share quickly and internationally.
Bottom line: Quality production and distribution of eBooks internationally is about to start a new page this year. Stay tuned…
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
10
Apr
Posted in author, ebook, ebook marketing, ebooks by Mike |
What do ebooks and penguins have in common? Simple. Every author experiences slow periods and rapid periods of sales on every ebook. To lay the foundation for the analogy between ebook sales and penguins consider that among the penguin species, there are warm weather and cold weather penguins:
• Magellanic penguins are birds found in the South American warm climate.
• Adelie penguins are cold weather birds often found in Antarctic.
In ebook marketing, there are “cold spells” when sales are flat and coasting. Other times, ebook sales are “hot” and you just want the fun to never stop.
Adelie Penguins and EBooks
You, (and every) author, has “cold spells” in marketing an ebook when:
• your ebook has just finished a new book launch and you’re wondering what to do next to keep the sales momentum moving upward.
• the reading market has changed and your ebook material is no longer relevant.
• you lose interest in the material in your own ebook.
Magellanic Penguins and EBooks
You, the author, love boom times when your ebooks are being rapidly downloaded and sales are “hot.” When are you, an author, on a natural high?
• “Pub Day” – that day when your book launches and is available to be downloaded for the first time – what a charge!
• when sales are consistent month after month because the your book is “evergreen” and relevant to your audience, regardless of seasons and fads.
• when meeting planners and event organizers keep calling you, requesting your participation in their activity for remuneration.
Fall in Love with Magellanic Penguins…
Which do you, an ebook author, prefer? A Magellanic “hot” penguin or Adelie “cold” penguin sales? You may think I’m asking a rhetorical question, but many authors don’t do what it takes to stay “Magellanic.” Many authors resign themselves to become “Adelie.”
Which penguin are you going to be?
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
Make a direct connection with your readers and listeners by bypassing the layers separating you, the author, from your audience. There is a worldwide audience interested in quality content so consider “going digital” in multiple formats- ebooks, videos, audiobooks…all digital – no print.
Consider:
Reading ebooks or listening to audiobooks, anywhere, anytime (slogan for AudioforBooks). This is so true. For example, people can listen to audiobooks in cars and read ebooks in trains, hotels, conferences…opening up two senses (audio and visual) for your readers to experience quality content.
Audible.com, a division of Amazon.com, has more than 100,000 titles available for download to over 500 MP3 players and smartphones. This alone greatly expands your distribution and “discoverability” opportunities.
Audiobook reviews in AudioFileMagazine. With an audiobook review of your book, chances are ebook sales will also increase.
Video clips on sites such as YouTube and Yahoo Video to point digital aficionados to your resources…
Sure, creating an audiobook from your ebook takes professional voice talent (narrator), sound recording setup and visually-attractive covers and disks, but also represents another revenue stream. Not only does an audiobook create another revenue stream for an author, but it also separates this author from all the authors who solely publish ebooks in a highly competitive environment.
Join the future content creators who provide quality content to their audience in a format the customers most prefer – all in a digital format. And, once you have your book in digital form, printing books is a cinch!
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
27
Feb
Posted in pinterest, social media by Mike |
Pinterest is the “new kid on the social media block” and gaining popularity rapidly.
Website traffic to Pinterest has grown by more than tenfold in the last six months. Pinterest lets users create online scrapbooks for sharing images of projects or products. Ecommerce retailers, in particular, like the “Pin It” button available to add to their websites and the affiliate marketing opportunities this button allows.
Pinterest’s monetization is still a question – how does this company make money? Founders of the company and venture capitalists close to the situation say “We have one hundred ideas but no execution as of yet,” Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann said.
Mr. Silbermann co-founded Cold Brew Labs Inc. four years ago and launched Pinterest, the company’s only product in 2012. Pinterest has raised $37.5 million from Silicon Valley angel investors. Pinterest’s value is currently around $200 million, according to investors close to the company.
Social-networking sites, usually free to participants, face a challenge with the prospect of making money. Advisors to Pinterest are centering on targeted ad sales, similar to Facebook’s model, as the most promising answer.
ComScore estimates that approximately 68 percent of Pinterest’s participants are women, mostly in the Midwest. In January, 2012, Pinterest had more than 11 million unique visitors. What do you think? Ready to follow me on Pinterest?
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
First, marketing an eBook is challenging with all the avenues available online. Take a deep breath and let’s look at one method for marketing your eBook: blogs.
I’ll assume you know your target market for your eBook (e.g., married, stay-at-home moms with two children under 12, professional salesperson trying to reach senior-level executives for high-ticket items). Having a focused view of your ideal eBook prospect, here are two blog directories to visit to build lists of like-minded people who want to buy your eBook:
Technorati
Blogsearch
Build a small list of 10-20 blogs from these directories that reach the same people you want to reach with your eBook message. Try to include in your list blogs that are ranked high and have many participants.
Over appropriate time to learn the idiosyncrasies of each blog on your list (two weeks is a good time), begin to feel comfortable “commenting” on each blog to become known to readers and the blog owner.
When you believe you have “introduced” yourself sufficiently on each blog for marketing your eBook, contact the blog owner. Offer to provide information from your eBook as a free resource for blog readers and suggest a one-day blog event revolving around material in your eBook.
Professionalism counts! Not too pushy, not to tame. Key is to be in the right blog, with high enough ranking that reaches your eBook target market.
For details on marketing your eBook with blogs and more than 300 hyperlink resources on eBook marketing, see my newest eBook titled: “How to Market Your EBooks” and here’s to your success…
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
Railsing Money Through Crowdfunding
Entrepreneurs have always been known for creativity and hard work. Now, thanks to the Internet, entrepreneurs wanting cash for business development quickly have online revenues.
Business development-minded entrepreneurs are discovering “crowdfunding,” for securing small amounts of money from multiple contributors online. Crowdfunding is a money-raising strategy that’s become ever more popular in recent years.
A number of web services provide platforms for entrepreneurs to get funding from contributors, often friends, relatives and members of their community. The funds don’t need to be repaid because they’re not loans. Many entrepreneurs, though, give their contributors some of the products or services their start-ups sell as a way to show appreciation.
• Peerbackers.com
• IndieGoGo.com
• Kickstarter.com
• RocketHub.com
This rose garden of funding for business development doesn’t come without conditions. Crowdfunding initiatives take effort and don’t always pay off. Entrepreneurs need to tell why they’re seeking financial support and hope contributions will come in during the timeframe allotted. Crowdfunding sites typically take a small percentage of the funds that entrepreneurs raise for business development.
Though many entrepreneurs have a reasonable experience raising money for business development, these entrepreneurs don’t plan to participate in crowdfunding again—at least not anytime soon—because they say it would send the wrong message to their supporters.
In addition to being able to raise money via crowdfunding only so many times, entrepreneurs say another caveat is that some people find the tactic offensive. Others say would-be contributors aren’t always comfortable sending money through crowdfunding services.
Here’s just one more example of entrepreneurs being creative in raising cash for business development.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
Creativity - Innovation - Business Development
Imagine starting your own company in your grandfather’s basement while you were charged with the additional responsibility of caring for him. On top of all this, you had also just graduated from college and were working with very scarce resources to develop your first product. George Davison, founder of Davison International, faced these challenges in 1989 when he started Davison International.
George established Davison in his grandfather’s home in Oakmont, Pa., which was built in 1863 by the founder of Pittsburgh’s Dollar Savings Bank. Working in the basement of his grandfather’s house, he made prototype molds, worked with customers, and established the foundation for the company’s state-of-the-art product development method that the company uses today to provide companies with a constant flow of innovative products.
Davison International is a 285-employee company that designs and creates kitchen gadgets, toys and other consumer products. In 2006, Davison relocated to a 61,000-square-foot building in Pittsburgh, Pa. The building’s interior underwent a year-long, $5 million renovation intended to encourage creativity and innovation among employees. One third of its inventions are used internally with the remainder being commissioned by third parties.
Back in 1989, outsourced R&D and open innovation were not the norm. As an outsourced partner for innovating new products, Davison International was the perfect solution to this problem. Companies began to realize that Davison was a cost-effective approach to R&D and the company experienced strong growth.
Before long, Davison outgrew the grandfather’s house and other affiliated offices. In 2001, Davison united all their operations under one roof in O’Hara Township, Pennsylvania.
With creativity and innovation being touted as “how to remain competitive in America,” companies are turning to Davison to keep a steady stream of new products in the pipeline to stay ahead of their competition and win the war for shelf space. At Davison’s cutting-edge 110,000 square foot new product design and development factory, George Davison and his Creationeers can produce 240 new products each month.
Nobody in history has ever come close to this kind of volume for creativity and innovation. Companies that work with Davison no longer send their salespeople to meet with buyers with three or four new products; they send them with 15 to 25 new products. In turn, their chances with these buyers are substantially increased.
In a buyer’s eyes, a company that continuously comes to them with a double-digit arsenal of new products is certainly more impressive and memorable than one that comes with just a few products. Buyers always ask, “What’s new?” and our customers respond accordingly. If you do not have a steady stream of products to present, how will you respond?
Creativity and innovation at Davison is greatly enhanced by the “Disney-like” office surroundings. Business development with customers and employees is easy when you encourage creativity and innovation on a daily basis.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
This year, even more people were shopping online on Christmas Day than ever before. With a week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve to catch up at work, why not repeat the shopping online experience New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day?
According to the Wall Street Journal, “IBM found that on Dec. 25, online sales grew by 16.4 percent over Christmas Day 2010. (IBM’s results do not include Amazon.com, the Internet’s largest e-tailer.)”
Mobile devices accounted for 18.3 percent of traffic, up from 8.4 percent last year. Mobile sales grew to 14.4 percent versus 5.3 percent on Christmas last year (according to ComScore). Let’s continue this shopping online experience one more week.
Shopping online New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day can also be advantageous for online retailers wishing to lower inventory levels to avoid local taxes January 1. Not only will you be helping yourself save money from year-end sales, but you will be helping online retailers avoid additional taxes by shopping online in the next week.
With the click of a mouse, shopping online with any vendor worldwide is possible. Let’s have this last shopping experience of the year…helping fellow global business owners end the year on a positive note and help ourselves save substantial money.
Happy New Year worldwide!
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
Happy New Year!
International Gift Giving Takes Thought
In today’s global economy, many businesspeople may be called upon to select gifts for the holidays for clients and colleagues around the world. Gifts are an important and often overlooked part of cultivating strong global relationships. In most countries, business is about depending upon an individual, relationships, trust, and that is
symbolized by a gift. However, gift giving can create problems when you don’t understand the culture and customs of the intended recipient’s homeland.
Know when a gift is expected. Become familiar with the holidays the country celebrates. For instance, “southern and eastern Africa are heavily influenced by the west and often follow British traditions. Muslim traditions cover most of northern Africa. But there are hundreds of celebrations, thousands of tribal cultures.” Muslim people exchange cards during the three-day festival at the end of Ramadan, the Holy Month.
In a country where Christianity is prevalent, Christmas and that time of year is a good time. But, be aware that gifts may be exchanged on different days throughout the Yuletide season, not only on December 25th. For instance, Russians follow the Eastern Orthodox calendar, which means that Christmas falls on a different day each year. Scandinavians give gifts on Christmas Eve, while Italians exchange gifts on the Epiphany, January 6th. New Year’s is also a common time to give gifts in some countries, such as Japan and China.
Consider the local religious customs. They may give you an insight into what gifts are inappropriate and what time of year to give gifts. For example, in India many people are Hindu, a religion which reveres cows. Thus, to give a leather briefcase would be sacrilegious. Other gifts to avoid include: handkerchiefs, which often symbolize sorrow and death, and knives or scissors which in many cultures represent the severing of a relationship.
So what is an appropriate and thoughtful gift? Items from your own country that are difficult to get elsewhere. For instance, a bottle of Canadian maple syrup, a jar of Texas barbecue sauce, or a fancy package of Hawaiian pineapples would be appreciated. But, be careful of dietary restrictions, especially with regards to meat and alcohol. You can’t go wrong with a picture book on” your homeland.
Many countries put a premium on “presentation.” The color of the wrapping paper, in particular, holds great significance in some countries. Different countries will value different color combinations and devalue others. For instance, in Asia, avoid black and white as both are associated with funerals; use red instead, which is considered lucky. Usually, Latin people like bright colors, whereas eastern Europeans prefer more subdued ones.
The way in which you bestow a gift can pose challenges. How you offer it – with one or two hands – can be very important. In Muslim cultures, the left hand is unclean, as it is used for body hygiene, so Muslims would give only with the right hand. In many Asian countries, natives give and receive with two hands to show respect.
Additionally, in Asia, it is considered polite to refuse the first time. You have to press a gift on them. They may refuse three times, and then accept it the fourth time. Why? “It shows modesty. They appear greedy if they accept right away. Unlike in the United States, in many other countries it is inappropriate to open the gift in the presence of the giver. For example, in Asian cultures, natives usually take the gift and set it aside to open later. One reason gift recipients don’t open a gift right away is that there’s no chance of embarrassing the giver or the receiver if it is inappropriate.
Gift giving customs vary dramatically from country to country, so it’s impossible to anticipate every situation. Following general guidelines and doing a little research will help you avoid major blunders. Remember the country’s religious customs, avoid giving forbidden commodities, and choose wrapping paper carefully. Show them you’ve done your homework, be honest and sincere. That is what they’re concerned with. Even if you don’t do everything perfectly, they’ll “give you an ‘A’ for effort.
Protocol for international gifts for the holidays varies from country to country. There are numerous customs not listed here. Before presenting a gift to an important foreign colleague, do a little research on the customs and protocol. You can call the foreign embassies to get specific answers to your questions, or contact your country’s Consulate and speak with the protocol officer to get advice.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
American Airlines declared bankruptcy reorganization this week. Airline disruptions can create disgruntled airline creditors, employees, retirees, suppliers and shareholders. The effect on global business development from the American Airlines bankruptcy also has an impact on businesspeople involved with global business development.
American Airlines bankruptcy means the airline will get smaller, so reducing flight schedules will have long-term impact on personnel in global business development. In the short term, there will probably be a “bankruptcy sale’’ to encourage flyers involved with global business development to keep buying tickets on American.
Why did American end up in bankruptcy? The short answer is the company couldn’t afford to keep losing money. Last year, American was the only major U.S. airline in the red. AMR (parent of American) had a net loss of $471 million. Delta had net earnings of $593 million; United earned $854 million. This year is likely to end up with more of the same.
High oil prices have taken a heavy toll. American has a less-efficient fleet than many of its competitors in terms of fuel consumption. That’s a big disadvantage, and bankruptcy court may allow American to get out of leases quicker on older planes, reducing its number of routes.
United and Delta have used mergers to become bigger and stronger. American, formerly the biggest U.S. airline, has dropped to number three in terms of passenger traffic. Its position in the marketplace has weakened as it has shrunk while competitors have consolidated into larger global networks that have attracted more business.
For American (also affecting individuals in global business development) labor is the big issue. Delta, United and US Airways all used bankruptcy court to force big concessions on wages, benefits and work rules for pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and ground workers. American’s unions gave the company concessions in 2003, but American still had the most expensive labor among its competitors (and American executives did not make any personal concessions).
And so, American Airlines is going to court in an effort to have more favorable labor contracts imposed. For businesspeople involved with global business development, flying American Airlines will now mean a higher probability of disgruntled airline employees.
Are there any airlines left that personnel involved with global business development can fly and have a pleasant experience en route?
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
Once you have identified your target market, list the problems facing them using a PAR analysis for business development. This is a brief description of the Problems relevant to your target market, the Actions you recommend they take to rectify their situations and the Results they can expect if they follow your recommendations to increase business development.
For each major problem (issue, situation or circumstance), describe how your recommendation will show how to take some action to resolve it toward business development. Then explain the results the prospect can expect after taking that action for business development. The analysis looks like this:
Problem Action Results
1)
2)
3)
The key is the Results column. This is the benefit your target audience gets from using your product or service. Read these in order of importance to your prospect/customer, then communicate them in your publicity, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, on your website, etc.
Market leadership is maintained by owning the top position in your prospect’s mind as the “one and only” in your industry. Use your benefit statement as a means to invent and own a distinct category among the people in your target markets (This is the only service or product available that …). Business development can be fun when you are your prospects’ “one and only.”
Keep your benefit statement in mind as you create your promotional material. Say your benefit statement when people ask you what your product or service is about and watch your business development efforts come together.
PAR statements can help you focus your attention where it belongs: on the needs of your prospects for business development. Describe your target market, conduct a PAR analysis, write a benefit statement for your typical prospect in each of your segments and you can increase your business noticeably.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
Developing an e-commerce business in China takes patience and understanding. Here are four tips to help you succeed:
1. Study the Chinese shopping habits, history, political atmosphere and culture to minimize lack-of-understanding snafus. You will have one chance to develop a successful e-commerce business in China, so preliminary research and careful rollout is necessary.
2. Do your best to understand the Chinese, but don’t try to be Chinese when creating an e-commerce business in China. On the contrary, highlight your culture because Chinese consumers long to purchase from other cultures…based on what that culture is known for manufacturing well.
3. Many a businessperson trying to develop an e-commerce business in China looks at the total Chinese population of more than a billion people and believes that acquiring even a small fraction of the Chinese population as a customer will create a profitable business. Not so.
The Chinese culture encourages “togetherness.” If your product or service does not appeal to at least 30 percent of the Chinese population, better to develop an e-commerce business elsewhere.
4. Be sure that you have adequate funding to create an e-commerce business in China. Competition for new ideas and approaches in business is very competitive in China, so you either need to be a big business or no business in China.
Developing an e-commerce business in China can be monetarily worth the effort…if a businessperson takes time to realize the Chinese culture is unique and plans accordingly.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
In recent years Amazon, via Kindle, has been part of an eBook revolution. Now there are several platforms from which to access your favorite eBook. For example:
• Ingram Content
• Sony
• Nook (Barnes & Noble)
• iBookstore (Apple)
• Google Books
• Smashwords
Amazon Kindle eBooks – Allows you to upload eBooks from Word docs to the Amazon Kindle reader sales program. You can upload Kindle eBooks ready for sales in less than one hour.
Amazon now offers a Kindle program to allow anyone to read a Kindle ebook via the web. The statistics here are current as of October 2011. Learn more.
• 44% of Kindle owners make more than $80,000 a year (Nielson)
• 83% of their parents allow their children to read books on an e-reader (New York Times).
• 27% of Kindle owners have Master’s degrees or doctorates (Nielson).
• For every 100 hardcover books Amazon is selling, it sells 143 Kindle eBooks (Jeff Bezos).
• Some publishers are now considering including advertising in their eBooks (Wall Street Journal).
Ready to participate in the eBook revolution starting with Amazon and the Kindle?
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
Create a professional website and the world will beat the door down to contact you. Really? As hard as it is to plan and create a website with text, images, digital media and interactive elements…that’s just the beginning. One of the hardest parts of operating a business for me is attempting to create and maintain a professional website design…it never stops!
Professional website design involves conceiving, planning, producing, researching and promoting the pages within the website. I’ve found that having a Long Island iced-tea nearby helps during all this activity. From the home page citing the main objectives and regular updates of highlights, to all the supporting pages, professional website design is like building (or remodeling) a complicated house. Solicit feedback from close relationships when building or changing parts of a website because others will often be helpful in critiquing.
Getting the most “bang for your buck” when building a professional website design includes these pages at a minimum: “homepage,” “contact,” “site map,” “products” (or services – or both – whatever fits your business) and “about us.” Integral in building a professional website is combining search engine keywords fitting your specific business with great content – making a site “sticky” (interesting enough for visitors to stay on the site for more than a few seconds) and easily found by the business’ target market. Be bold and include content and visuals that are totally unique to you…being professionally unique is a virtue on the Web.
Professional website design calls for small tweaks and changes after going live. Visitors to a professional website want to know that their effort to visit a website will be rewarded by new and unique information periodically. We’ve all been inspired by websites that update multiple times daily (e.g., Wall Street Journal) and disappointed in websites that have information from a holiday months earlier. The larger the organization sponsoring the website, the more often visitors expect meaningful changes – often daily. For one-person consulting firms, monthly updates are considered adequate.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
12
Oct
Posted in author, ebook marketing by Mike |
In today’s digital world, if you want your eBook to stand out, you’re going to have to step up and get involved in the promotion, which often means communicating directly with your target audience through a variety of channels (online and social media, in-person, through print media, etc.).
Writing can be somewhat of a solitary profession, but the resources available to authors today give us the opportunity to reach our readers and form relationships with them to create a fan base. Marketing to your audience can be a little intimidating at first, but all it takes is focus, creativity, and a lot of energy. Get to know your audience and you’ll be well on your way to more effective marketing.
If you were considering driving to an unfamiliar destination, what is the first thing you would do? You probably consult a map to chart the best way to reach it. When getting the word out about your eBook, a marketing plan is your map, describing your journey from where you are now as an author to where you want to be. It sets your direction, guides your thinking, and lists the actions you will take to get there.
Marketing an eBook is simply deciding what you want to accomplish with your eBook, setting an objective to keep you on target, and then asking yourself a few questions about what you need to do to reach your goal.
Organize these questions and your answers to them in two parts. Part one sets your direction, during which you’ll ask the following questions: What do you want to accomplish by writing your eBook? Who will buy it? What’s in it for you? Part two answers the following questions: What information do people want that is not already available? Where will you sell your eBook? At what price? How will you let people know that it exists?
There’s a word for an eBook writer who never gives up… published.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
When I was researching new business development books today, the scarcity of meaningful, tangible resources was astonishing. What I found were books covering “soft skills,” material rewritten from gurus of yesteryear and overall useless information for someone trying to build long-term business relationships with senior-level executives.
Here are four new business development books that provide hard, tangible benefits for businesspeople wanting to build their business:
(1) Connecting with Key Decision Makers: How to Reach Hard-to-Reach Businesspeople Who Can Say “Yes” – Michael H. McCann – 2008. Okay, a few words for shameless self-promotion. For more than 25 years, I have worked hard to tweak new business development programs and techniques so readers have exactly what I’ve found works when building business relationships with senior-level executives.
(2) Seal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business – Suzi Pomerantz – 2006. The innovative, 10-Step “Seal the Deal” system reveals how to integrate the critical business development points of networking, marketing and sales to find and land the ideal clients who need your genius.
(3) Selling to Big Companies – Jill Konrath – 2005. Discover how to target accounts where you have the highest likelihood of success, create breakthough value propositions that capture prospect’s attention, overcome obstacles and objections that derail your sale efforts and have powerful initial sales meetings that build unstoppable momentum.
(4) Selling to the C-Suite: What Every Executive Wants You to Know About Successfully Selling to the Top – Nicholas A.C. Read – 2009. Selling to the C-Suite provides all the insight you need to gain access to executives, establish trust and credibility, leverage relationships and create value at the executive level.
When you want to create a new business development program geared toward senior-level executives, you can’t go wrong with these four books (especially Connecting with Key Decision Makers).
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
New business development is a team effort involving several business functions: marketing, sales, public relations, customer service and social media integration. Each business assembles these five functions to best suit their individual business…with results corresponding to the abilities of the business’ leadership to coordinate these five business development functions into a cohesive whole.
Marketing
Marketing unearths prospects by creating matchmaking models focusing on the relationship between likely customers and what a business has to sell. Marketing communicates and relates to prospects to make the sales process simpler in business development. A salesperson or customer service representative converts prospects to customers.
Sales
Marketing unearths prospects and delivers the names of prospects to the sales force for closing the sale in business development. Because many salespeople have a quota to reach, marketing works to provide adequate leads so a salesperson can consummate sales and “make quota.”
Public Relations
From creating press releases to writing content for a business’ collateral, public relation personnel are charged with putting their employer’s “best foot forward.” Always putting the business in the best possible light is the ongoing goal of public relations in business development.
Customer Service
Marketing can “unearth” prospects, sales can convert prospects to customers and public relations can make everyone feel good about being associated with a business. Upon becoming a customer, an individual then has interaction with customer service for support in business development. Properly trained customer service personnel can make or break the customer relationship.
Social Media Integration
Ever since bulletin boards became popular on the Internet, businesspeople have been making and retaining “that connection” with prospects and customers for business development. Fast forward 20 years to today and social media sites, such as Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. have made business “connections” an art form. Learn social media skills, perform ongoing posting, listening and responding to posts…your business development can build online relationships that reward a business in the bank account.
Next time you are at the water cooler talking about “new business development” with a colleague, mention team play for new business and wait for…”Tell me more…”giving you a chance to discuss these five activities under the “new business development umbrella.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
Business development and marketing a business go hand-in-hand. Especially today, with information readily available, more and more people online, and easy access to business development and marketing tactics and tools the two are intertwined.
Business development works closely with sales. Business development begins the motion and increases brand awareness before sales activities are even implemented. This before-hand marketing can greatly increase the chances of a potential buyer knowing who you are.
Here are three tips to help you get started in business development:
1. Don’t draw a line between marketing, sales and business development. If you have different departments, ensure that these departments talk to one another, talk often, and communicate what’s happening within each one. Individuals involved with business development need to work together more than ever before because of the Internet.
2. Don’t assume that if something is deemed PR, sales or marketing it cannot be used in business development. Since business development includes marketing, sales and PR, there is no need to say one activity is strictly PR, sales or strictly marketing. Just like these departments need to work together, so to do the tactics and strategies.
3. Don’t isolate the marketing and sales departments either. Business development within a company includes marketing, sales and PR because when there is no communication, one team will most likely counteract the other with undermining tactics.
Business development, including marketing, PR and sales are necessary for any business activity. Social media and press releases may be seen as PR tools, but they’ve become part of the business development toolbox as well. Everyone talking and working together will insure that the business is successful.
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
