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	<title>BLOG.EKNLINKS.COM</title>
	<updated>2010-07-30T12:10:28Z</updated>
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		<title>Turning that prospect into a customer</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.eknlinks.com/2009/11/04/turning-that-prospect-into-a-customer.aspx?ref=rss" />
		<id>tag:blog.eknlinks.com,2009-11-04:a729e29e-199e-4e49-805d-2a2ece8d3066</id>
		<author>
			<name>EKN Links</name>
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		<category term="Sales" />
		<updated>2009-11-04T18:10:00Z</updated>
		<published>2009-11-04T18:10:00Z</published>
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My business comes tome”. Who dares to proclaim this type of arrogance and confidence.&amp;nbsp; I don’t recall any one knocking on my door to give me their business. It is true that, once in a while, a product or service comes around that people do stand in line for hours to get – like World Series tickets. This is probably not true in your business.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;As a sales manager, it is necessary to develop a strong routine of developing sales leads and finding prospects.&amp;nbsp; Business cycles change and new customers replace the old,regenerate the new and refresh the sales process.&amp;nbsp; Hopefully, you have a prospect list to start from. This list usually can come from listing companies, the phone book, current customers, the Internet, networks or associations or from your old dead files (past customer that have not bought in years).&amp;nbsp; I normally use all of these methods to find prospects and then I go through a qualifying process to help narrow down strong possibilities for my products or service.&amp;nbsp; To qualify these prospects I ask the who, what, how much and when questions to who ever I can get a hold of at the prospects office. Once each account is qualified I try to take the next few steps to get me in the door.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;I will call the prospect and try to set up an appointment.This sounds easier then it really is. I don’t believe in masking my true intentions to get me in the door so I try to pitch the value of my visit. I prepare an argument of why the prospect should see me and how I will help his business. I try to push some type of added value for them – actual savings to their bottom line, added value to their consumers, or I try to illustrate how my service is needed in their business. This call will basically setup an appointment or a disappointment. In case of the disappointment remember that sales is a numbers game. Some of the best batters in baseball are .300+ hitters(that’s 3 out of 10) and a great sales manager could do the same. The goal of the first call is to sell the customer on getting an appointment or creating some type of need for you and your product.&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;&lt;img style="width: 257px; height: 79px;" longdesc="ekn links. we can help" alt="ekn links" src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/4/2/3/8/6/178882-168324/eknhelplogofinalbanner.jpg?a=82" align="right" border="0" height="79" width="257"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If success grants you the appointment then go to prospect prepared. If you sell a product make sure you have the proper samples,appropriate deals and order sheets.&amp;nbsp;Do your homework on the competition. How does your product measure up and compare? Show the dollars and sense of a deal in black and white. It is suggested by some that visualization the sales call helps you succeed. I use this technique and run through the pro and con scenarios. Go through all of the FAQ’s in your head – anticipate the questions and have the right answers. I want to stress at this point that I never recommend making things up as you go along. The sales profession has come a long way to battle those stereotypes and I can assure you that your competitor is keeping it factual. If you don’t know the answer the typical response would be “ I will get back to you on that”.Make sure you do. I actually plan this step out and keep my Daytimer handy(yes-I still write it down). When a “..get back to you…” question comes up – I stop the presentation, take out my Daytimer and write it down. This is done to help me remember and for effect. Of course, I do get back to prospects whether the deal closes or not.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Have yourself organized. This includes the sales presentation, the samples, the process, the close and the follow-up.Organization can go a long way to combat any negative feelings that may develop during a prospecting call.&amp;nbsp; It is always difficult to build repoire with new prospects but organization,professionalism and courtesy are the building blocks.&amp;nbsp; After all is said an done and you have come to the conclusion –ask for the business. If you don’t try to close it may not happen.&amp;nbsp; If you get the objections,the brush off or the follow-up call always be grateful to the prospect. A thank you also goes a long way to help build new business relationships.&amp;nbsp; Since I still like to pen things out, Ido send a thank you card or follow-up note just so that don’t forget me so soon.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Ken Ninomiya has marketed and sold products internationally for nearly 20 years. He holds an Executive MBA from the Chapman School of Business, FIU and currently is VP of Sales and Marketing for &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;EKN Links&lt;/a&gt;. EKN Links is a solutions company for domestic and international businesses providing sales, marketing, Public relations and business strategies. Ken can be reached at kenninomiya@eknlinks.com or &lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial" size="2"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;www.eknlinks.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Prospecting for new business from your desktop</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.eknlinks.com/2009/10/30/prospecting-for-new-business-from-your-desktop.aspx?ref=rss" />
		<id>tag:blog.eknlinks.com,2009-10-30:95fede5c-544e-4315-af76-a1b9e15dc019</id>
		<author>
			<name>EKN Links</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Sales" />
		<category term="Marketing and Sales Development" />
		<updated>2009-10-30T13:58:00Z</updated>
		<published>2009-10-30T13:58:00Z</published>
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&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial;"&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--&gt;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;font face="Tahoma"&gt;&lt;font size="4"&gt;Prospecting for new business from your desktop.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;Business is grown in just three ways – grow your existing account base, develop new revenue streams with new products or ideas or get new business.&amp;nbsp; All three options have their own positive and negative effects on a business but all three have to be considered in a slow economic times or when your business has reached a certain level of market maturity.&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;&lt;img src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/4/2/3/8/6/178882-168324/eknhelplogofinalbanner.jpg?a=69" align="left" height="97" width="316"&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;This article will focus on gaining new business through prospecting.&amp;nbsp; Each company has a set of key elements that bring its product or service to the market. These key elements are presented to a targeted group of prospects who have the need for your product.&amp;nbsp; Locating this targeted group can sometimes be elusive and the lack of new prospects will deter the growth of your business.&amp;nbsp; So how does a company look for new prospects?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The internet allows us an affordable way to do our own searching for prospects.&amp;nbsp; I have worked with a sales person lately who needed to open up 16 new accounts a year selling a high end hair treatment and shampoo line. The opening order cost for any new account was a minimum investment of $3,000.00.&amp;nbsp; After understanding who will use the product and I turned to the internet for some quick searching.&amp;nbsp; Sometimes entering a key word or description of the product will turn up hundreds of potential customers. In my first online search I came up with thousands of hits. I used a drill down technique for each search. By simply adding the word “Florida” after the key words and a comma, I was able to narrow the list down just to the specific targeted territory.&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;Another internet strategy I use is to enter a key word for who would use the products. In this case I entered “high end hair salons, Florida” and “hair salons and spas, Florida”. This resulted in another list slightly different then the first but added several hundred additional more prospects.&amp;nbsp; I also looked for competitive websites. There are times that a competitor will post their entire account list on the web – yours for the taking.&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;Now that we have some new prospect names – what do we do with them?&amp;nbsp; Here is where most companies, sales managers and sales reps fail. &amp;nbsp;It can be a daunting task to have 43 pages of new prospects. Where does one start? My first suggestion would be to go through the entire list and read the name, location and type of account they are if this information is available.&amp;nbsp; Often times it would be a good idea to share this list with your controller or “accounts receivable” person within your company to see if you can eliminate any deadbeat accounts. If you have a sales manager it might be a good idea to share this list with them also to see if there is any history there.&amp;nbsp; I would not suggest eliminating any names because you don’t like the area they are in or the name of their business. Remember, a good sales person does not make the decision for the buyer and one should never be quick to discount new business.&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;Qualifying the prospect is the next most important thing to do.&amp;nbsp; It’s time to make sure that they fit your customer type and that they will have a need for your product or service.&amp;nbsp; Go to their website and look around – you may find out that they already buy your competition or have a missing need to fill with your product. You can learn a lot about a company from an on-line search. I would also call them up. The first call is an exploratory call. If it’s a large company and you get the receptionist see if you can ask some qualifying questions to that first screener. Questions I have used are “Do you currently sell or use (enter your product or service hear)? If you get a yes, dig some more on the who, what and how much? If you get a “no”,&amp;nbsp; find out if they ever tried to sell or use your products? If it sounds like a possibility for a customer, ask the screener for the person who is in charge of making that buying decision. If they can set up an appointment for that person do so on the call. There are times when you make one call and get to the decision maker immediately. In this case, I would recommend a conversation that starts off with “I hope that you can offer me your opinion about my product or service” and then get into some qualifying questions.&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br&gt;Don’t forget while we are prospecting to ask for referrals and leads to new business. Sometimes the next big contract comes from your last source of business. If you provide a valuable product or service and maintain a professional and courteous relationship with your customers-they will refer you to others.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;!--[endif]--&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial;"&gt;Ken Ninomiya has marketed
and sold products internationally for nearly 20 years. He holds an Executive
MBA from the Chapman School of Business, FIU and currently is VP of Sales and
Marketing for EKN Links. EKN Links is a solutions based company for domestic and
international businesses providing sales, marketing, Public relations and
business strategies. Ken can be reached at &lt;a href="mailto:kenninomiya@eknlinks.com"&gt;kenninomiya@eknlinks.com&lt;/a&gt; or
&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span"&gt;www.eknlinks.com.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span&lt;/a&gt; style="font-family: Arial;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;
</content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Target Marketing</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.eknlinks.com/2009/09/11/target-marketing.aspx?ref=rss" />
		<id>tag:blog.eknlinks.com,2009-09-11:e2e0255f-f3ea-400b-89cc-fe3fe557598e</id>
		<author>
			<name>EKN Links</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Marketing" />
		<category term="Marketing and Sales Development" />
		<updated>2009-09-11T14:56:00Z</updated>
		<published>2009-09-11T14:56:00Z</published>
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It is an excercise in target marketing. Are you practicing the aim of a superior marksman or&amp;nbsp; are you using a shotgun effect to see what you hit? In this economy can you afford to miss you target? Can you afford to use a shotgun affect and hope that you hit some target that generates sales for you? Selecting the right target markets is critical for your business since all marketingactivtities will be directed toward satisfying the needs of your targeted customers.&amp;nbsp; ekn links helps you to target your customers. we can help with making sure your investment in the product and the channel deliver results. Visit us at &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153);"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;www.eknlinks.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; to learn more.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;!--[endif]--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;One approach that some marketers use is to target a very broad market of qualifiedcustomers with the most basic need that could be satisfied with their product or service. This is known simply as "the mass" approach but keep in mind that there are very little products that is one size fits all. This "mass" approach is sometimes effective and often costly. This approach can take months to deliver results and generate doubts in your strategy but a continous effort with smartly produced tools will yield results in time.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;All markets and the consumers within those markets are different with different needs therefore marketers must also understand the key elements to market segmentation. This strategy divides broad mass markets into customers with similar characteristics and needs for your product or service. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;!--[endif]--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;A standard market segmentation approach should include the following three-step process.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;!--[endif]--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;1. Identify segments within the mass market&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;2. Choose the segment(s) that fits best with the product features, benefits and value proposition&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;3. Develop strategy that appeals to that specific target market(s) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;ekn links&lt;/a&gt; has helped to target over $100MM worth of products and services for our partnered companies. we are experts in developing the marketing segmentation and marketing strategy. View our website &lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;www.eknlinks.com&lt;/a&gt; for FREE marketing tools and more information.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;!--[endif]--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;!--[endif]--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Targeting your market.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;!--[endif]--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;As part of your target market segmentation strategy we have developed some basic questions to ask your management team:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;!--[endif]--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="circle"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;Is the     market worthy of being a target market?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;Is     this a large enough market segment to support the revenue objectives?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;Is the     segment targeted growing?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;Is     your company prepared with the skills, team, knowledge and expertise to     deliver the needs of the segment?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;Does     the segment meet the overall plans, goals and strategy of the company?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;What     is the most&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt; 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&lt;br&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</content>
		<summary>Ready…Aim…Fire!

This is not a firearms exercise. It is an excercise in target marketing. Are you practicing the aim of a superior marksman or  are you using a shotgun effect to see what you hit? In this economy can you afford to miss you target</summary>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>On Line tools</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.eknlinks.com/2009/07/15/on-line-tools.aspx?ref=rss" />
		<id>tag:blog.eknlinks.com,2009-07-15:612d983a-8f23-4650-961e-67009985ce38</id>
		<author>
			<name>EKN Links</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Marketing and Sales Development" />
		<updated>2009-07-15T15:28:00Z</updated>
		<published>2009-07-15T15:28:00Z</published>
		<content type="html">&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;If your reading this your on line. Congratulations! &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Did you know that as I write this today - in 2009 - there are still small businesses that are not maximizing their on line potential. Imagine that. In an environment that requires everyone to have an on line presence over 35% of small businesses still do not have anything to speak about.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;ekn links can help build your on line strategy and help you improve your exposure. Contact us for a discussion on how we can help you improve your business by executing a strong on line strategy. email: info@ekn links.com or visit us at &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;www.eknlinks.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com.&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;div&amp;gt;You"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;You may think that you don't have the time or the money to build your on line strategy but can you afford not to?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Did you know that there are FREE on line strategy techniques for small business? Without sharing all of my trade secrets here are a few FREE ideas that could help you build an on line presence.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Before you get started with your strategy you should check your internet connection speed. Go to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.speedmatters.org/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;www.speedmatters.org&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt; to see how your connection compares to the rest of the world. If your not loading up fast enough change your internet provider! It's all about speed on line &amp;nbsp;and you can check your speed by using an easy to use on line speed checker from this site. Their website proclaims that&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Speedmatters.org promotes affordable high-speed Internet for all Americans and advocate for programs and policies representing 700,000 workers in communications, media, airlines, manufacturing, and public service.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Once you have checked your on line connection speed you should check how your current website looks on a number of different web browsers. Go to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.browsershots.org/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;www.browsershots.org&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt; to check out your site view. This website allows you to enter your URL and check out how it looks in a number of most commonly used browsers world wide.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Now that we know how we look in different browsers and how fast our pages load up its time to make a connection. On line connections can be as easy as telling your family and friends to send out an email about your business letting them know what you do. Start with your inner circle and move into the outside world.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Do you tweet?&amp;nbsp;Most corporations are now using Twitter to keep in touch with their customers and they use this FREE application as a tool to offer specials and discounts to the crowds that follow them. Right now Twitter is FREE to sign up but talk has been heard about charging to Tweet in the future so get in while it's FREE. Go to&amp;nbsp;twitter.com to sign up now and begin reaching your target audience!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Once you start to tweet you may want to create a Facebook page. You can create an individual page or a group that will help you to develop fans that will follow you around on line. Facebook is becoming more popular and having a Facebook page would be a great way to get your business name out there. &amp;nbsp;ekn links can help you set up your Facebook page while also creating an on line strategy for your firm. Contact us now at info@eknlinks.com for more information or got to &lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;www.eknlinks.com&lt;/a&gt; to fill out a contact form for more info.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;font color="#000000"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: normal; white-space: pre; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "&gt;&lt;span style="white-space: pre-wrap; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Another great FREE on line marketing tool is posting viral videos to help get your message across. ekn links has helped to create a number of different on line and for TV videos that help to get the message across. You can do this now by using the current video camera you shoot your family events with and simply upload to You Tube. Once created you can spread the word to your customers. You would probably benefit from having a professional done video to best represent your business and ekn links can help you with that. View some of our videos done for a number of our clients on our You Tube Channel: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/eknlinks" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;www.youtube.com/eknlinks&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/eknlinks&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;font"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/eknlinks&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;font"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/eknlinks&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;font"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/eknlinks&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;font"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/eknlinks&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;div&amp;gt;&amp;lt;font"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font&gt;&lt;span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;You can get other FREE items to help you build your business. Google offers on line docs, business email accounts and even a translation service - all for FREE!  Check out &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;www.google.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt; to learn more about these programs.  There are also FREE service for on line meetings (www.FUZE.com) and FREE conference calls (www.FreeConferenceCall.com) that can also help build your business.  With all these tools out there you should not be left out.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font&gt;&lt;span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font&gt;&lt;span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "&gt;&lt;img src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/4/2/3/8/6/178882-168324/eknhelplogofinalhires.jpg" width="492" style="width: 140px; height: 45px; " align="right"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;If all of these FREE ideas sound great but you don't have the time to execute them you will need to hire a specialist. Contact ekn links now. We can help. We have a new program for website and on line strategies starting at $499.  At this price you can't afford not to be on line with your business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face="'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif" size="3"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font color="#333333" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 19px; "&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>New Product Launch</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.eknlinks.com/2009/06/02/new-product-launch.aspx?ref=rss" />
		<id>tag:blog.eknlinks.com,2009-06-02:0d11c90b-fcfe-45dd-88f6-010a69eef6fe</id>
		<author>
			<name>EKN Links</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Marketing" />
		<updated>2009-06-02T18:25:00Z</updated>
		<published>2009-06-02T18:25:00Z</published>
		<content type="html">&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;I
have often come across great product ideas within companies that fail. The
failure is not because the product is bad. The product fails because of poor
management planning that applies the wrong new product strategy. The old saying
of&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;“Fail to plan – plan to fail”
holds true with the launch of a new product or product strategy. &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;ekn links&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; has helped a number of our clients understand the process of &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;launching a new product&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/4/2/3/8/6/178882-168324/eknlogofinalhires1.jpg" width="700" align="right" style="width: 140px; height: 63px; " border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Management
must always challenge them selves to be better regardless of financial
consideration within or outside the walls of the company. The new GM management
team will be struggling with the reposition of the company in the coming years
and it must start with new product development. Can the new GM deliver a new
vehicle that the U.S. consumer wants?&lt;span style="font-size: 12px; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px; "&gt;nts? Will the new GM management team be able
to use the old GM positioning to re-launch the company and bring it back to its
former glory? The management team must answer the question of which market
their business should be focused on? Where will their opportunities come from?
How do we grow the business with existing product and the launch of new
product? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;There are three basic ways to
increase revenue for any given company. The company can increase market share
with existing lines in new channels, sell more of the products to the same
channels or come up with a new product for key channels. &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;ekn links&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; has helped our clients recognize revenue growth through product development, market development and sales development. These are several
strategies management can take to help accomplish growth goals and each
one of those decisions have cost and ROI factors to consider. In today’s fast past
market and in the case of the new GM, a new product is key to building the
business. The concept of new product development and new product strategy is
one that requires an understanding of who you are and who your customers. You
cannot develop new products without knowing your existing business and how you
fit into the marketplace.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;The
first goal of a company that wants to release a new product is to know where
your company stands in the market place today and to know what your position
is&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;as a company. In marketing we
often use product-positioning grids to identify where our products are and in
this case I suggest using a company-positioning grid. There are several
specific company strategy positions that most companies can be lumped into.
Identifying your company &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;strategy position&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; type will be key to helping you plan
out your new product release and outlining future plans.           &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;A company strategy can be broken into these four types:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;            &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Innovators:
These companies are normally first to market with new product and generally
rely on new technologies to help advance their market position. Innovative
companies often respond very quickly to new emerging opportunities and can get
a product out fast through their existing channels.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;            &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Followers:
If you are second in line than eventually you will be first. The followers
believe in this strategy. These companies usually monitor their competitors and
are rarely first to market but learn from the innovators mistakes. In some
cases the followers can make a better model than the innovators and are able to
reduce production cost. They also have the advantage of releasing a product
into a familiar market and they ride the success of the innovators first mover
advantage.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;            &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Defenders:
This company will generally serve a niche market or geographic environment in
most cases. They will seek to hold a position in the market place and rarely
follow the leader. Often times this company remains stagnant in growth but
maintains a steady market share and profit. These defending companies may also
offer a high quality product at competitive pricing which allows them to
fortify their market position.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;            &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Re-Actors:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;These companies are not aggressive at
all in trying to gain market share. They normally hold their position well and
are well funded with market resources. These types of companies only go into a
new market because they have no other reasonable choice while being forced by
the micro and macro environments to make a move.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Once you have defined the type of company position you are
in your management team must identify the type of product strategy you follow.
In some case companies you may have several different product lines that fall
into different product strategies. If this is true than you should identify the
strategy that best matches your new product launch.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Here are the basic &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;product strategy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; choices:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Differentiated: Your product is
highly sophisticated and different. There are possible high growth markets and
your product has little to no competition.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Low
Budget: These products are usually copycat products made of inferior components
and quality. These products do rely on heavy marketing but drive revenue
through volume of low prices.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Tech
Driven: Innovative high tech products that need to be released into a rapid
changing market environment. These types of products may have a very steep
product life cycle and often have a lack of focus towards their targeted
market.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Low
Tech: This product lacks innovation and is low tech. These products exist for a
small market and have very little market strategies.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;High
Budget: These products use a large amount of company resources and do not have
a string promise of success. Development of these products is key above all and
their cost are evaluated based on the opportunity of future markets.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;ekn links&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; can help your management team understand your company market position and your product
strategy. We will help you develop your product with your management team as they recognize the steps of developing a new product strategy. With a understanding of who you are as a company, the second step demands that you understand where your current products are
now. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;For this exercise, I like to create a grid that identifies
all of the products by individual item. If you have many items across different
product families you may only want to use those products that you feel are
candidates in the comparison and that will help you define this new product
launch strategy. Consider products that share the same marketing channels, the
same consumer or same selling space. Will your &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;new product launch affect current&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; product sales? Do you want a consumer dollar swap as a new product launch
result?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Plot out your products,
your competitors and your new product scheduled to be launched.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Take a look at your
existing products and compare your new product against them does it fit in? If
you sell white tennis shoes to men over 65 can you sell 4” high heel pumps to
women under 25? If your new product doesn’t fit in you may need an additional
set of resources to launch the new product. Using this comparison you should be
able to identify gaps in the market place and in your product portfolio.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Define your &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;new product target market&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; and potential markets
based on where the gaps may be located. Eliminate any markets that seem a far
reach so that you can focus on the sure ones. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;After you have identify some gaps in the current market and
you have convinced yourself that your new product will have a shot you, you
will need to answer what I call the Go Questions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;. The set of GO Questions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt; are
the basic fundamental questions you will need to have answered as you begin the
product launch.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;img src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/4/2/3/8/6/178882-168324/Go_Questions.gif" width="480" align="right" style="width: 300px; height: 311px; "&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Now you have gather enough data to understand where you are
as a company and where you products currently sit in your existing market. You
have also plotted your new product against your competitors and your current
product portfolio to identify gaps in the market. You should have also
thoroughly answered the GO Questions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt; with well though out answers.
All of this information will be used to help you formulate your product launch
plan. You should follow these basic steps to launch the product.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;1 – Create your goals. Make them realistic and attainable
for the first two years. When developing these goals ask yourself these
questions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;            &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;a)
How do these new products fit into your existing product portfolio?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;            &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;b)
How do these new products fit into your company?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;            &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;c)
What will our consumers think about these new products?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;            &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;d)
How will our channels react about our new products?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;When creating your goal statement you should be very
specific with exact deadlines and numbers to meet. A realistic achievable goal
will help you set the pace for the launch.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;2 – Identifying your target areas. Where will your new
products be focused? Who will be your customers? How will you get the product
to them? What do you need to do to reach them?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;3- Allocate your resources and prioritize your spending.
Create a budget that captures all of the potential areas of resources needed to
compete your goal.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Remember that
resources also include people, places and things not just dollars.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;4- Develop a plan for implementation that includes all of
the information you have gathered so far.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt; 
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;This is where you have to be as specific as possible to capture the
details of the plan. You may want to use a project worksheet to help you keep
track of all deliverables and assign specific team members task with clear objectives
and deadlines.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;Launching a new product&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; is a wonderful experience that the entire
company can be involved in. A successful product launch can help to re-position
your company in the market place and take market share away from your
competitors. A poor product launch could drain the company of valuable
resources and allow the competitors to bite into your current market share due
to a lack of focus and market rejection. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;



&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 51); "&gt;Your products tells a story and that story will help your product sell.  Success of any product relies on proper planning, goal creation and the development of a unique selling proposition. Many products fail due to lack of planning from the manufacturer and limited buy-in from the market. Estimates have product failures at between 75% to 90% due to lack of planning, weak sales execution and poor product development. &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;ekn links&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; can help you with your &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target="_blank"&gt;product launch&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Marketing in a Recession</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.eknlinks.com/2009/04/15/marketing-in-a-recession.aspx?ref=rss" />
		<id>tag:blog.eknlinks.com,2009-04-15:ca763f2b-216a-4797-bde7-2bca0ed2f57c</id>
		<author>
			<name>EKN Links</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Marketing" />
		<updated>2009-04-15T23:58:00Z</updated>
		<published>2009-04-15T23:58:00Z</published>
		<content type="html">&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; white-space: pre; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: medium;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Marketing in a Recession&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; white-space: pre; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;We know where we are within the economy. We know where we have been. We may also know where we are going.  &lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Our economic times dictate how our companies prosper but does not dictate how we can manage our. Business can be down for your company but it could also be down for your competition? How do you want to differentiate yourself from your competition in bad times and in good?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;div&gt;Differentiation is the key to marketing. Make sure that you have clear differentiating points from your competition. This is your unique selling proposition. This is how your customer come to know you and also why they value your product. This is how your customer will remember your product or service. Are your customers thinking about you now?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Have you thought about how your customers think about you during these tough times? Do they think about you? Do you want them to think about you? &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Most companies now are &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://eknlinks.com/recession-marketing.php"&gt;cutting cost to maintain profitability&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; and out of necessity but are they cutting at the right places. As a marketer I often disagree when I hear about companies that cut their marketing budget but I realize that this is a favorite place to cut for most and also the most easy. Most marketing campaigns are difficult to link directly to revenue generation but it is also hard to prove that your marketing campaigns don help you keep what you have now.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Managers often cut their &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://eknlinks.com/recession-marketing.php"&gt;marketing budgets&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; in an effort to cut costs but are they also cutting down their future revenue? In tough economic times like these marketers should realize the value of being top of mind with their consumers. If its tough out there marketers need to stay in the game with their consumers.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Very few of us have disposable dollars as consumers but when we do get them we need a place to spend them. If your not marketing to your customers now while times are bad how will they remember you when times are good? If I have money to spend I will spend it with the marketers that have been there in good times and bad. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Most of your competition has trimmed down their marketing budgets so why not try to pick up some market share with some carefully placed marketing. This a good time to go where your competition used to be. If they dropped a key market ad campaign to save a few dollars why not take it away? Have they walked away from a key market? Take a look around and see what opportunities are out there. There are many deals out there from print to radio ads for all types of ad campaigns.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;My idea of &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://eknlinks.com/recession-marketing.php"&gt;recession marketing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; is taking share of mind from your competition. The fight for market share starts with mind share. The more your products and services are in your customers mind the more you opportunity you will have to convert that mind share to market share. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Eventually mind share you gain now will convert to market share when things start to pick up again. &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;ekn links&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; provides our current clients smart, inexpensive ways to create a recession marketing plan and pick up mind share. ekn links evaluates where your marketing dollars make the most sense. Its not just the spend of the marketing dollars but also the return on your investment. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;ekn links&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; also provide new customers with a customized &lt;span style=""&gt;&lt;a href="http://eknlinks.com/recession-marketing.php"&gt;recession marketing plan starting under $499&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;. &lt;span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; "&gt;&lt;a href="http://eknlinks.com/recession-marketing.php" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; "&gt;&lt;a href="http://eknlinks.com/recession-marketing.php" target="_blank"&gt;Recession Marketing Plans&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-weight: normal; "&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-size: 13px;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; "&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-weight: normal; "&gt;Marketers need to expand in a recession not contract. Keep your product and service in front of your consumers.  Expand your market when your competition retracts. ekn links will help you gain additional exposure and keep that hard earned market share. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-size: 13px;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; "&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-weight: normal; "&gt;Our new Recession Marketing Plan ™&lt;b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "&gt; &lt;/b&gt;evaluates your strengths and weaknesses. ekn will help you identify your key target opportunities for market expansion within and outside your current distribution channels. This detailed Recession Marketing Plan ™&lt;b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "&gt; &lt;/b&gt;plan is done with the goal of creating new revenue while keeping revenue on a restricted budget. Our Recession Marketing Plan ™&lt;b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "&gt; &lt;/b&gt;development price of $499 is budget conscious but our goals are revenue generating.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-size: 13px;"&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; "&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-weight: normal; "&gt;Here’s what you get to fight off the recession with our &lt;a href="http://eknlinks.com/recession-marketing.php" target="_blank"&gt;Recession Marketing Plan™&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul type="disc"&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "&gt;Company Evaluation Report:&lt;/b&gt; This report will define your company’s core competencies and key differentiators. We will perform a SWOT analysis on the external and internal environments that your management team can use to help position your company in the marketplace.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "&gt;Market Evaluation Report:&lt;/b&gt; This report will place your products into the market place and compare them to any identify competition. This report will also identify market targets for growth and expansion.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Marketing begins with research</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.eknlinks.com/2009/03/06/autosaved-75143-am.aspx?ref=rss" />
		<id>tag:blog.eknlinks.com,2009-03-06:b45fcd00-5ead-4ebc-9f88-46db7d61772d</id>
		<author>
			<name>EKN Links</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Marketing and Sales" />
		<updated>2009-03-06T14:51:43Z</updated>
		<published>2009-03-06T14:51:43Z</published>
		<content type="html">&lt;A href="#"&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com/"&gt;ekn links&lt;/A&gt; &lt;/A&gt;I have seen a lot of good ideas and bad ideas but the ideas that have a shot of actually doing something are base off of dedication, drive and basic research. It does not take too long to see where your opportunities are in any market even one as low as this current one. The key to finding out where your oppportunity is is doing some research. As marketers we must rely on primary and secondary data. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Primary Data is collected for the first time and done for the original &lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target=_blank&gt;marketer.&lt;/A&gt; This data is collected for a specific purpose and is generally directly commissioned and costly. In today's market enironment primary data is used on very high-profit oppotunity ideas by most small businesses. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Here are some methods of primary research:&lt;/STRONG&gt; &lt;BR&gt;1. Interviews &lt;BR&gt;2. Focus groups &lt;BR&gt;3. Projective techniques &lt;BR&gt;4. Product tests and work groups &lt;BR&gt;5. Commissioned Studies &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Secondary marketing research already exist and is relatively cheap. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;You can get this information from many sources - including the internet and this blog! This data is general and needs to be examined for its usefulness but it can help you create a strong direction for your plans. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Here are some ways to collect secondary data: &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;1. Trade associations and industry press &lt;BR&gt;2. National and local press, internet &lt;BR&gt;3. National/international government data. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;This US Census is a cheap source to start - here is the web site: &lt;A href="http://www.census.gov/"&gt;&lt;FONT color=#2a688c&gt;http://www.census.gov/&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;During all your research you must focus on several research opportunities: &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;1- Analyze customers, and their needs &lt;BR&gt;2- Monitor the macro environment &lt;BR&gt;3- Evaluate any marketing activities in place currently &lt;BR&gt;4- Redefine research pool if samples are not satisfactory.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;he task of research and evaluation of the data is the most difficult part. What do you do what the data you collected? How can I use this data to apply to my product? Dirty data is a common challenge marketers face and creates havoc on marketing plans. It is hard to learn how to filter out the noise and eliminate the dirty data allowing you to get to the clean "scrubbed" data that a marketing team can rely on to get a task done. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target=_blank&gt;Marketers&lt;/A&gt; must validate and question any sources that could supply biased data and this data can certainly come from distributors, retailers or other intermediaries and the internet! Every marketer must research the data validity and reliability before trusting it to a valued decision. Even small, informal research conducted poorly will not produce relevant required results. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;All research will have an inherent flaw in it. Poor results can come from many reasons but are often tied to how one gets the data. To validate most research one must first set the measurements and benchmarks and than validate that it is measuring the right data. Data or reports available for purchase normally make a claim as to what they are measuring such as competitors’ products, market conditions etc. Even the smallest reports qualify how the data was collected. You can search for a number of companies that offered pre-packaged data and reports. Most governments also offer statistics and marketing data through their commerce agencies for free. These are great tools to understand the basic surface markets. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Because you read this blog - I'll help you save a few hundred bucks - try out the FREE gov site &lt;A href="http://www.stat-usa.gov/"&gt;www.stat-usa.gov/&lt;/A&gt; . &lt;BR&gt;ekn links can help you make sense of all this data madness and put it together for you in a strategic marketing report. Contact us now at&lt;A href="http://thethingswetalkabout.com/2009/03/05/marketing-sales-strategies/info@eknlinks.com"&gt;&lt;FONT color=#2a688c&gt; info@eknlinks.com&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt; or visit us at &lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;www.eknlinks.com&lt;/A&gt; &lt;FONT color=#575757&gt;to learn more about market research. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target=_blank&gt;eknlinks&lt;/A&gt; can help you to reach your target audience. Below is an example of a video created for on line and on air vieweing to launch a new company and product here in the US.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Post by : Ken Ninomiya , VP Sales and Marketing, &lt;A href="#"&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com/"&gt;ekn links&lt;/A&gt; &lt;/A&gt;&lt;FONT size=+0&gt;&lt;A&gt;ekn links &lt;/A&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;Ken Ninomiya specializes in developing and implementing results-oriented sales and marketing programs for international manufacturers. He has held positions with one of the largest food manufacturers in South America, a start up of a fortune 100 company, and Sales Director for a division of Dole and Tressallure (a Revlon licensed company). &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT color=#575757&gt;Ken has 20+ years of experience in branded and private label consumer packaged goods and specification/contract products. Appointed as the Trade Liaison to Shanghai, China as a resident from 1992-1994, he helped a number international of companies understand the &lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com" target=_blank&gt;U.S. market.&lt;/A&gt; With an understanding of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, Ken Ninomiya holds a marketing degree from Dallas Baptist University specializing in International Business, and an Executive MBA from the Chapman School of Business at FIU. Ken has earned academic business awards and the Richard Boulware Scholarship for entrepreneurship. He has authored and created business cases and an interactive business simulation for executive training and is an adjunct professor of executive education in marketing management.&lt;!-- begin ajax random post data --&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;BR&gt;</content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Welcome - ekn links</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.eknlinks.com/2009/03/04/welcome.aspx?ref=rss" />
		<id>tag:blog.eknlinks.com,2009-03-04:2b98827d-f548-49f9-8383-10efe21ab79d</id>
		<author>
			<name>EKN Links</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Marketing and Sales" />
		<updated>2009-03-04T22:46:49Z</updated>
		<published>2009-03-04T22:46:49Z</published>
		<content type="html">Welcome to my blog. Join us weekly for comments, ideas and tips on marketing and sales. If you have a comment make it known. &amp;nbsp;Please check back weekly&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;for new entries.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Have a marketing challange. Contact ekn links. we can help.&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://www.eknlinks.com"&gt;www.eknlinks.com&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;ekn links will help you position and market your branded products&lt;BR&gt;</content>
	</entry>
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