Cheryl Downing’s Marketing Soapbox

The recent Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose had a great example of guerilla marketing. On the sidewalk outside one of the theaters, they were using a freestanding screen to show a skateboarding film to a group of guys who were sitting on their skateboards.

My latest interview is with Alicia Smith, founder of Alicia Smith Consulting & Training LLC, located in Bozeman, Montana (http://www.aliciasmith.com). I’ve taken marketing classes from Alicia at CoachVille and I’m familiar with her products and services, e.g. 90DayMarketingMarathon.com, 90DaystoaProduct.com and DISCNinja.com.

Alicia has a very practical approach to marketing. Throughout this interview, she discusses why a key theme of her business is leverage. As one example, she explains why she believes the term “passive revenue” (or passive streams of income such as books, CDs, tapes, etc.) is a bit of misnomer and why she prefers to use the term “leverage revenue.” She also shares her perspective on why market research is necessary to verify that a product can be implemented and used by a large number of people–rather than just our mothers. She talks about the importance of using DISC assessments with both her clients and in hiring, e.g. virtual assistants.

We also discuss tips from her 90DayMarketingMarathon program, i.e. the business use of email signatures, voice messages, and “Top Ten” articles. (Alicia even gave me an example of how I could revise my email signature to promote my teleclasses. Thanks again, Alicia!) She also talks about the importance of training our clients on how we want them to work with us. Plus, how some of our best ideas come when we take a break from our daily routine.

Alicia is the guest co-host for my Marketing Q&A in May, which will be recorded and available in the audio archives.

Check out my website for more information:: http://www.cheryldowning.com/marketingqanda.htm

I recently had the opportunity to interview Richard Reardon of R&R Business Development (based in Santa Monica, California; http://www.richardreardon.com). I initially met Richard several years ago, when he was a co-founder (with Thomas Leonard, arguably known as the “father of coaching”) of CoachVille’s School of Small Business Coaching.

For me, part of Richard’s competitive advantage is the way he combines practical marketing and sales techniques with what I would call a “New Age” perspective. He emphasizes doing the inner work on understanding your own needs, in order to be successful at marketing and selling.

In our interview, we touched on a broad array of marketing and sales topics, including his “inside/out approach”, selling value vs. services, why tiered pricing allows the prospect to co-create their solution, and how to handle the question of price at the beginning of the sales call. The interview runs approximately 70 minutes. You can download it or listen online.

Richard is also my co-host of April’s Marketing Q&A session, which will be recorded and available in the audio archives.

For more information, check out my website: http://www.cheryldowning.com/marketingqanda.htm.

Recently, I interviewed Lorraine Lane of Lane Business Consulting (Brooksville, Florida; http://www.lanebusinessconsulting.com) on the topic of how to effectively use business networking.

Lorraine specializes in working with business owners who are overwhelmed, frustrated, isolated and in crisis-management.

On the topic of business networking, Lorraine discusses the strategies she coaches on, including the five business card limit (yes, you read that right), using give-and-take in referrals and more. The interview runs approximately 50 minutes. You can download it or listen online.

Lorraine is also my co-host of the Marketing Q&A session, which will be recorded and available in the audio archives.

For more information, check out my website: http://www.cheryldowning.com/marketingqanda.htm.