BMW's Marketing Videos

As you know, I am a huge BMW fan. Aside from that there is much to be learned from their marketing strategy. One great way to market your product and company is to produce videos. They can be product specific or they can be testimonial videos. Visual forms of marketing are always very effective in pulling your targeted audience into your "zone." Watch the two videos below and see how well done they are! Then figure out a way to do something for your YouTube channel and website!

Value Over Price: The Tipping Point of the Sale

Many companies today are finding it more difficult to increase sales in incredibly tight industries. How can we get those sales over the hump and close more business? One critical key element of the sales process is being able to demonstrate that you offer superior value than your competitors, and excellent value on your price point. Jeffrey Gitomer has said that when value exceeds price, a sale usually occurs. We have all heard the phrase "its a deal you can't pass up!" right? It is important to examine the process of how our clients come to find value in our offering. There are many ways to offer superior value, I will cover three. For more ideas, ask some of your existing customers what they like best about doing business with you, and make them even better.

The first value avenue is in our product or service. This is where we can differentiate tangibly our offering from our competitors. For example, in my case I have a very robust, feature rich Voice over IP telecommunications platform that I can offer at a very competitive price. Compared to my competitors I can offer more features, more options and higher usability than my competitors can, and I can offer it at a more competitive price point than they can. This is one avenue where I can offer superior value.

The second way to offer more value is in the way we conduct business at our company. Are you easy to do business with, or are you a pain in the neck to work with? Can you connect with your customers on a personal level and offer them superior service than your competitors? Is your company generic or memorable? Another example is in order. At my company I have the freedom to really engage my dealers on a regular basis and offer them a high level of personal service. I can be reached directly, very  easily by email or phone, and there is not a roll of red tape to go through for me to get something done for my customers. When they need something I can get it done, and I can do it very quickly. I am always available to them.

The third way to offer value is the "you" value. You are the most important differentiating factor in the sales equation. Products and services don't sell themselves. Who are you as a person? Do you have a positive attitude? Do people like you? Are you committed to your company? Do you go the extra mile to help your existing customers and potential customers? Are you genuine? Do you stay engaged with your customers and give them the tools they need to be successful with your product or service? Can you be reached when your clients need you? A final example is in order. Whenever I conduct an online webinar to share information on my product and company, I make every effort to find out what the potential customer is looking for, to make sure I can meet their needs. I know my product well and I know my industry well. I educate them on the market place and how my product and company helps other companies to excel in VoIP communications. Personalization is important in how you engage people. Find out what interests them, rather than focusing on what interests you.

I offer value personally by helping people make educated decisions. I make my existing clients a priority, and I make every effort to help them succeed with my product. I also enjoy training them on my VoIP solution and teaching them how they can offer superior value to their customers by offering my product. By conducting sales webinars for my dealers, I am able to educate their prospects on the benefits of my VoIP solution. Putting together quotes and answering any questions my customers may have is a priority for me. It is my belief that by helping others to succeed puts me on the road to success. In short, you are the key factor to the sales process. Yes, it helps to have the first two elements, but without the third one, the first two will not stand. So no matter where you are on the first two elements, always be sure to work on the third.

I believe that by knowing and communicating these key three values will help you in winning new customers and keep your existing customers coming back to do business with you. Do everything you can to bring your value offering over the top of your price point and you will naturally grow your business!

Gitomer Sales Tip Video: Overcoming Barriers Or Objections

The End of BLF Consoles? Desktop Call Presence Software is the Future.

Busy lamp consoles have long been a favorite tool of the trade for receptionists. Many consoles can have hundreds of buttons on them so calls can be transferred throughout a company to employees. Many times this has resulted in a cumbersome layout, often taking up large amounts of desk space. With the integration of desktop presence software  BLF consoles are slowly being phased out.

Although people are always prone to resist change, desktop call presence software has given receptionists, and even ordinary  phone users something to get excited about. Instead of having to hunt for BLF keys on consoles, now calls can be easily transferred with a click of the mouse!  For example, IPitomy Communications has developed a powerful desktop call presence manager called Q-Manager. For about the same price of a BLF console, you can put Q-Manager up on a separate computer monitor and see the status of all users on the system. You can easily transfer calls and chat to other users on the system. Important statistics such as call time, caller ID, alert windows and park queues all make the job of call management easy.

Calls can be transferred with one click directly to an extension or directly to voice mail. You can also page to an extension to announce calls. Park zones are located conveniently down the left side of the screen where they can be easily monitored and picked up. Chat bubbles appear in each extension block who are also utilizing Q-Manager on the system, so that texts can sent back and forth between users.

For those looking for more, Q-Manager also offers features such as whisper, listen, and record features as well as conference room monitoring and management. For example, call centers can use the listen and whisper features to coach employees on calls, they can also record calls on demand for later review and coaching.

As the need for conference calls increase, the desktop software utilizes color imaging to let the viewer know who is talking on the bridge by lighting up the call in red along with the caller ID and name of the participant. Conference participants can be muted individually as well, and the conference room can be locked and unlocked with a click of the mouse.

With an ACD package even more information is present on Q-Manager pertaining to call queues. Q statistics can be an effective means of monitoring the performance of call centers. Valuable statistics such as average wait time, average call length, answered calls, abandoned calls as well as individual agent stats are available on the screen.

The age of large BLF consoles and large phones with multiple tiny buttons on them crammed onto the face of the phone are coming to a close. As technology continues to push telephony in new directions, desktop call presence management is sure to continue to evolve and offer more options and usability for receptionists and ordinary users on their business phone systems.

DDWRT Can Supercharge Your Router and Make it Easier to Manage!

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I thought I would link to a great article explaining the benefits of having DDWRT on your router. You can either load it onto a router that is compatible or find a router like the Buffalo routers that have it on it already. Enjoy!

How Do You Close A Sale? Open The Relationship Well

Are You Ready For VoIP? Tips For VoIP Readiness

Voice over IP is the future of communications. Over 90% of phone systems sold today utilize VoIP. There are may reasons businesses are moving towards VoIP solutions. A few them are, mobility options, remote phones, cost savings on their monthly phone bills and trunking redundancy. The fact that VoIP is an attractive option brings about another critical question. Is your network infrastructure capable of handling VoIP effectively? There are a few basic checks you can make before implementing a VoIP solution.

1. 100BaseT Minimum: You should be using at least 100BaseT standards. Your entire LAN structure including your switch should handle at least 10/100 mbps.

2. LAN Cabling Cat5 or Better: You should have dedicated LAN connections from your switch to each desktop location that are Cat 5, Cat 5e, or Cat 6 rated. If you have old cabling and are replacing an old phone system you may have to rewire your office and replace old Cat3 cabling.

3. Switch Compatibility: You will want to use managed, layer 3 switches. QOS (Quality of service) is important with VoIP, and your switch must be programmed to match the QOS setting on your VoIP PBX.  POE switches are also beneficial to powering your IP phones, otherwise you will have to use power supplies on each phone, or POE injectors.

4. Router Compatibility: Having a capable router is also important for your VoIP solution to run smoothly. If you have a premise based IP system and are using remote phones, NAT is very important. Be sure to have a router that has consistent NATing and be prepared to enable port forwarding on the router as well. Be sure to disable any ALG on your router to avoid problems with VoIP traffic. The router will also most likely be used to serve DHCP and hand out IP addresses to your network devices. Most importantly, have a router that you or your IT department can manage competently. Many companies buy a router based on reputation, rather than on functionality and management.

5. Bandwidth Test: You must test your Internet bandwidth before using any SIP related trunking for Internet voice calls. This applies whether you are using premise based equipment or a Cloud based solution. Cloud based solutions are even more demanding on bandwidth since extension to extension calls go through the WAN rather than traversing the LAN as it would do with a premised based solution. The speed test must be run at different times of the day, especially at peak times to determine if you have enough bandwidth to handle all of your voice and data traffic. Generally, each voice call uses 64kb in each direction plus some extra overhead for SIP. It is safe to use a number of about 180kb per call. Estimate your maximum number of calls you will have at peak time and then add in some overhead on top of that to be sure you have adequate bandwidth. For example, lets say you estimate that the maximum number of calls you will ever have at one time is 12. 180kbs multiplied by 12 is, 2.1M. Its not a huge amount, but for those businesses on a DSL for example, which average 1.5M to 2M, it would present a necessity to upgrade Internet speed.

6. Network Performance Test: Have your IT department run a test on your network at different times of the day to ensure you have a clean network. There are many things that can cause latency, packet loss or jitter on a network that can effect voice packets negatively, which go unnoticed with data only. It is good to perform packet traces at different times of the day for a period of time to find problems on a network before installing VoIP.

Following these six checks will eliminate some of the most common obstructions to having successful VoIP deployment. Your local telephone installer can give you advice on upgrading your current network for VoIP implementation. In some situations you may have to upgrade routers, switches or wiring along with your new phone system purchase. VoIP is a different animal compared to the old digital systems. Once you upgrade however you will never look back! Its kind of like going from tape cassettes to CDs, or from VHS to DVD.