I recently helped my daughter sign up for her first post-paid phone. We did our homework, talking to the SAME phone salesman multiple times. I didn’t focus much on the business relationship because it was such a good deal.

Then came the day to make the purchase. EVERYTHING that could go sideways, did. Plus, my credit wasn’t actually what they had said two days earlier.

Bye, bye almost free iPhone 7. Instead my daughter now had to come up with 70% of the cost of the phone, which busted her budget and broke her heart as she had to drastically down grade her phone. Now we were looking to get screwed as little as possible. Sit with that for a second.

As the consumer we were reconciled with “getting screwed.”

Despite the misinformation, we still bought a phone. That salesperson was trained to get us excited for A HUGE discount on equipment, but then had us leaving with a big dent in her bank account. Buying a deal and selling from an aggressive position with no thought to the future or the business relationship puts both buyer and seller in a terrible position. It’s only about price. The seller didn’t understand my situation, and I didn’t have any loyalty to their brand.

Favorite Customer Questions

How do you avoid the customer’s post-sale disappointment? Sales people need to change how they treat people. Think about your THREE favorite customer sales. Then answer these three questions:

• Do you know them on a first name basis? 
• Can you name their spouse or children? 
• Have you been to their house for a holiday or meal?

If you answered yes to these questions I have news for you. Those aren’t customers, they are called friends. The best sales are to those that like and trust you. The ones you got to know and found it more important to know about them than to take their money. That’s the groundwork for a successful business relationship.

It’s great to get to know people, it’s great to earn their trust before the give their hard earned money for your product or service. It is even more amazing when they become a REPEAT customer. How can you do this with your limited time?

Secret to a Better Business Relationship

Easy. TELL your story, don’t just SELL your stuff.

That same process can get you the sales you are looking for long term. Selling NEEDS to be a long game, not a short one. People want to know you are trust worthy. That they have something in common with you. When you differ or disagree, they understand it and why.

So, HOW do you tell your story so that they eventually buy your stuff? Be you. Talk on social media. When networking, ask if there is anything they want to know and ask questions about them.

What are your hobbies? How did you pick your career? Send them emails and messages that cover more than just, “We are running a special, do you want in?”

Social media is an amazing tool that will allow people to get to know you from a safe distance, and then once they KNOW and trust you, they will contact you to purchase. They want to know what shows you watch, your favorite sports, and your pets. What makes you happy, sad, frustrated? What kind of things do you use for motivation, what kind of things, like politics, do you avoid? You know, the things you say and do when you are trying to make a new friend.

The MOST successful people that you look up to probably have more friends than sales. If you focus on developing relationships and developing rapport, you’ll build your network of friends. You will then see that the more they know about your story, the more they will like you and work to build your mutual successes.

Tell Your Story, Don’t Just Sell Your Stuff says @BeSuperSocial on #RocksDigital
Click To Tweet

What conversational topics help you best develop relationships?

The post Your Business Relationship: Tell Your Story, Don’t Just Sell Your Stuff appeared first on Rocks Digital.

It is awesome owning a business. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t keep doing it. One part of owning a business is that it comes with so many different hats, sometimes too many.

Do you ever notice how you are good at wearing some hats verses others? Some hats feel really great to wear, and some hats you want to burn and never wear again? You probably have some hats that are your “SUPERpowers” that you have taken for granted, or need to concentrate on and, maybe delegate the other hats or powers to someone else. Others have probably recognized your “Superpowers”, and asked you for help in those areas because of what they have heard or seen you do.

Find Your Business SUPERpower Right Now

First, SUPERhuman strength.
No you can’t pick up a truck like Superman, but nothing seems to be able to slow you down in life or business. Your associates see you always coming out on top of any situation you happen to be in for business. If you are sick, you are still on top. If you are down, you ignore it and you stay on top. Even though you are constantly moving, you never seem to be too busy.

Second, SUPERsonic talking.
You can sell ice to Eskimos or wood to a forest. You love helping people find the items they need to succeed. Sales is not for everyone, but you are always salesman of the day. For those that can’t sell as well, you are looked to for help and advice, and even the occasional referral. You sell because you love it and you are really good at it.

Third, SUPERsonic leadership.
Not everyone can walk into a room and organize it into something that works together like a well-oiled machine. Every group needs a leader and you are looked to for that leadership. For a fundraiser, they call you. For a networking event, they call you. For a holiday celebration, you are on their speed dial. Not everyone can create a successful event out of thin air, but you can.

And fourth, SUPERsonic designer.
Your blood runs with indigo ink. You are constantly designing. Fonts are your hobby. Whether it is print or web, a business card or social media, you have just the right design for just the right channel. You wield a pen or pencil as if it is a wand. You are everyone’s artistic Harry Potter, slaying bad design where it begins.

Take The Business SUPERpower Quiz

1. When you are under a time deadline, do you:
a. Push through and come out shining.
b. Look for another sale to take your mind off the impending deadline.
c. Call your friend that was looking to have you join their referral group
d. Browse Pinterest for inspiring text art ideas.

2. When you are trying to get three more sales for the month, do you:
a. Get the three sales in during the next thirty minutes, despite your migraine.
b. Have three people from the last month call you and request you sell them your product today.
c. Put the finishing touches on your networking luncheon.
d. Decide your business card needs a make-over.

3. When you have to make assignments to your sales group do you:
a. Check with your first place salesperson to make sure it can be done.
b. Get on the phone and make sales that you can have one of your sales team finish once you get the commitment.
c. Have a one-on-one with each of your team to find out how you can help them finish up the month strong.
d. Have a creative brainstorm for a new design for your company’s brochure.

4. When you have a poster mock-up due in one hour, do you:
a. Got to Vista print and get it ordered on time.
b. Barter with your designer friend for a design in exchange for a referral.
c. Call in your most creative team member and let them have at it.
d. Design one and then re-design it four more times before it is due.

This quiz is obvious, and your SUPERpower probably is, too. You need to concentrate on what you are good at and, either team up with someone who can do the other tasks you hate, or hire someone that compliments your SUPERpower with theirs, creating your own SUPERteam.

Business 101 advice, ALWAYS play to your strengths, or to your SUPERpowers, and delegate or hire out for EVERYTHING ELSE.

Take the Business SUPERpower Quiz from @TheAnthonyRyan #RocksDigital #SmallBiz
Click To Tweet

What is your SUPERpower? Share it in the comments below.

The post Take The Business SUPERpower Quiz appeared first on Rocks Digital.

So what does kryptonite have to do with self-defeating business strategies? After all, you are a SUPER amazing businessperson, network a ton and people seem to love you. You offer great products and services and you consider yourself a SUPER entrepreneur. We all have at least one or two self-defeating business strategies that keeps us from being SUPER every day.

One of the world’s favorite superheroes is Superman. As SUPER and amazing as Superman was, he still had a weakness that made him not so super. This weakness was kryptonite, a little green rock. When he was exposed to it, all of his super-powers would go bye-bye. Luckily there was a way for Superman to fight the effects of the kryptonite. Once encased in a lead container, all of the effects of the kryptonite could no longer affect Superman.

As amazing and SUPER as you are, you too have kryptonite (insert dramatic music here…) that is holding your business back from success. Let’s address three common kryptonite weaknesses you encounter in business and how to put them in a lead box, so you can be SUPER again.

The Most Common Self-Defeating Business Strategies

#1. The Yes Man: You over promise.
Everyone wants to be a hero. The difference between a hero and a zero is delivering what you say you are going to and coming up short in the eyes of the customer. If item “A” is good for you customer then “ABCDEFG” will be even greater for them, so you promise more than you can provide. Did you account for “BCDEFG” in the time you set a side to do “A” to the best of your abilities. Probably not.

The Solution: Promise what you can deliver with time to spare.
Stop trying to fill every minute of your workday with project time. It is un-necessary and stressful. You and your client will be much happier getting a small segment of a project finished early than waiting for larger project to finally get complete.

#2. The DIY: You try and do it yourself.
So you are a one-man show! You can design, print and sell all at once while holding a beverage, talking on the phone and answering emails. But be honest with yourself – are you really good at all of that juggling, or do pretend you are because you think you are actually saving yourself money? You are so use to controlling every and doing everything yourself that you are not looking at the bigger picture.

The Solution: Loosen the Reins
You need to play to your strengths. As much as you like to think you are SUPER at everything, it is just not true. With websites like Fivrr and Craigslist, you can find affordable help. Do the things you are really good at, and get help on the things you are only average at or don’t really like doing.

#3. The Busy Bee: I’m busy so I must be making money.
This is probably one of the BIGGEST kryptonite issues with business owners today. A lot of busyness doesn’t equal a lot of business. Your Internet surfing is not billable. Researching a problem via your email account is not billable either. The shake you enjoyed before lunch, yep not billable either.

The Solution: Schedule work time and playtime.
Use a schedule to plan out your day and document where you are spending your time. This will help to see if your daily activities are making you money or not. As fun as watching YouTube videos are, if they are not on the schedule wait to until they are. Instead of “working late” finish your project during regular business hours and then veg out on the Internet later.

There are a range of reasons you could use to justify ignoring these self-defeating business strategies short term. BUT if put these into a lead box and you can be SUPER again.

Reading abt #Business Kryptonite! Tks @TheAnthonyRyan #RocksDigital #BizTip #SelfHelp
Click To Tweet

Now that I have SUPER simplified these issues and provided the fixes what are you doing to do differently? What self-defeating strategies have been holding you back?

The post Overcome Your Kryptonite: Three Self-Defeating Business Strategies appeared first on Rocks Digital.

We talk a lot about social media, but you can have the best social media campaign ever, but without a website you will get nowhere fast. All content management systems (CMS) are NOT created equal and I recommend WordPress because it is easier than most to use.

WordPress is one of the most effective and super versatile content management systems around. It can be used to design a super simple blog page, or, with a robust theme, can be used to create a complicated website like this one. Since WordPress is the preferred platform, website developers are creating easy to use DIY WordPress Themes and Plugins.

5 Benefits of Using WordPress for your Website

1. Search Optimization Friendly, the Permalinks

Permalinks are the links, or URLs, for your blog post and webpages. Any time you create an article or page within WordPress, a URL is created. WordPress allows you to make URLs as well as permalinks that include keywords which search engines like Google love. This allows search results to better rank your website for the keywords you have chosen.

2. Search Optimization Compatible Content Titles

WordPress is set up to automatically make your website pages and post titles the new URL. Keyword rich titles can be used to make it simpler for you to achieve greater rankings in Google as well as other search engines when people are trying to find data or products related to that title.

3. The Opportunity to Create Tags

Tags are similar to labels. Tags are available at the end of any article on any WordPress website and allow you to use keywords to spell out your article. Towards the end of this blog post you will likely see several phrases or tags at the end of the post like “WordPress”, “WordPress for beginners”, or “WordPress for SEO”. These tags or key term will let the search engines web crawlers to raised index your blog post which in turn will help visitors who are trying to find information like “word press” as well as WordPress for SEO to uncover your online site.

4. The ability To Cross Hyperlink Content within Your Website or Blog

WordPress permits you to effectively link similar content to each other which assists with SEO. Cross linking is when you create a link created from one of your blog posts and articles to a new relevant article on your web page. Using this article as an example, I could build a link within this article, that when clicked, is going to take you to a different WordPress article which is related and you will probably find helpful. The link will be a key word, or keyword phrase such as “learn WordPress”. This is yet another WordPress tool which will help with your search engine optimization.

5. You Can Ping Innovative Articles or Articles

Every time you publish or modify a posting or a new blog page, your WordPress website can alert a number of different sites that you’ve just updated your blog. This is called pinging and it’s also a very effective tool which you can use to help your website with getting ranked in the search engines. Get the 2015 Ping list.

5 Reasons to SUPERFY Your #Website With #WordPress by @TheAnthonyRyan #RocksDigital
Click To Tweet

These are just a few of the reasons I think WordPress is SUPER for you to use for your website or blog. Comment and share why you use WordPress and if you don’t why not.

The post 5 Reasons to SUPERFY Your Website With WordPress appeared first on Rocks Digital.

In order to be a SUPER social media manager, you need to develop a powerhouse social media strategy.

This is essential in ensuring that the use of the various platforms available is actually in line with your company’s mission. A proper SUPER social media strategy acts as a guideline to you and those who work for you and are in charge of managing your social media. It helps all of you to deal with the numerous risks that face users of highly interactive customers and audiences.

Answer These Questions to Create A SUPER Social Media Strategy

1. Know Your organization’s mission and communication strategy
2. How your social media activities support that mission
3. The appropriate content and online products you intend to create to draw people to your site and social media channels
4. Define the roles and responsibilities of employees such as; social media super manager, content creators, curators, account administrators, content providers, OR if one person is to wear all of these hats

Content creation doesn’t need not to be left to the individuals in the IT and public affairs departments only. It can be done by subject experts across your company.

What You Need to Understand When Designing a SUPER Social Media Strategy

• Social media account set up procedures
• Your organization’s audience on each social media channel
• The times that are best to give them content and have conversation

While setting up social media accounts, you should opt for either centralized or decentralized decision-making. In centralized decision making, the super social media manager simply sets up accounts for the decentralized subunits. In decentralized decision-making, the central social media strategy only provides the context but then every subunit decides how many accounts are opened.

As far as audience is concerned, you need to establish a social media presence that is not too intrusive for your audience. It’s important to respond to them by providing opportunities for input and encouraging them to share content.

How You Are Going to Manage the Social Media Accounts

• Online access alternatives, not just your computer, but your tablet or smart phone, etc.
• Social networking services, tools and platforms
• Online etiquette and comment policy

Selection of a specific social networking tool should be made as one of the last decisions in the social media strategy design process. Instead, you need to focus on your audience, your organization’s mission and appropriateness of your online content, before deciding which tools or combinations of social media channels to allow.

A successful SUPER social media strategy involves defining your expectations for online interactions with your audience. Always respect your audience and be sure to accept and respond to their comments and questions. Social media is about actually being social.

Learn How to Create a SUPER #SocialMedia Strategy from @TheAnthonyRyan #RocksDigital #BizTip
Click To Tweet

The secret to creating a great strategy is getting started! How did you create the social media strategy for your company?

Learn more on this important topic at one of the largest digital marketing conferences for 2015!

The post How to Create Your Company’s SUPER Social Media Strategy appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Social media marketing can be super time consuming and there is always something to do. When you are designing the social media strategy for your business it is imperative to make preplanning (with a content calendar) and social media automation a focal point.

If you set your social media strategy up for success by including just a few of the tools I discuss below, you can focus on content curation or creation, user engagement, lead generation and so on while your social media is on somewhat on autopilot.

Social Media Automation Tools

1. SocialOomph for Queue Your Blogging Content

When it comes to social media strategy automation SocialOomph has some terrific features. One that you will find yourself using the most is the queue. When you publish content on your website you can continue to promote it for long after it’s original post date. This is where SocialOomph comes in.

Your can schedule multiple versions of the same update throughout the day, week or month using the queue feature.  This will allow you to get your best content in front of the largest audience possible.

2. dlvr.it for RSS Feeds

Dlvr.it makes it incredibly simple to promote your latest blog post across many social media channels. You choose the content source (your blog’s RSS feed, for example) and then select the social media channels that you want to use to promote the content. Every time new content is published it is automatically shared with your audience. Here’s how to setup dlvr.it to RSS feed to your social media.

3. Postplanner

Facebook should be a major component of your social media strategy and you can use this Facebook page management tool to automate status updates and the sharing of content on your business Facebook page.

Postplanner comes with a content discover search engine that will allow you to identify popular content in your specific industry and then schedule its delivery on your Facebook page.

4. Buffer

Buffer has become one of the fastest growing tools to help businesses automate the content curation and creation aspect of their social media strategy. Combined with news readers like Feedly, Buffer allows you schedule the sharing of content that you think your readers will enjoy and find valuable.

Preplanning and social media automation will make the implementation of your social media strategy, run much more smoothly. You can easily schedule a month’s worth of posts in less than an hour, freeing you (and your staff) up to focus on your business.

A Super #socialmedia strategy includes automation tools.” via @TheAnthonyRyan #RocksDigital #BizTip
Click To Tweet

Add one or all of these tools to your social media arsenal today and streamline your processes dramatically. If you haven’t been using social media before now for your business get started today.

What social media tools are you using and how have they worked for you?

The post Superfy Your Social Media with Automation Tools appeared first on Rocks Digital.