Sanjay Dalal of oGoing and I talked about how to grow 80% of business with 20% sustained marketing effort using the 7 Marketing Basics and Lifestyle Marketing Master Plan. Small businesses need to determine who their real customer is and then focus on the type of marketing that brings in the best ROI.
👉🏽👉🏽 Freebie for you: Text ogoing to +1 530 203 5703 for your free resource, Cindy’s Marketing Master Plan
Transcript:
Cindy:
Sunday, if you can give us the link to the YouTube. Yes, absolutely. Let me know and just pop it in the chat either to everybody or to Fallon. And then we’ll get that onto the seven marketing basics, a Facebook group as well. Hey, Fallon Sanjay, if you can give us the link to the YouTube. Yes. Oh, the feedback when that happens. Yeah. About 32nd delay on, on YouTube usually, right?
Sanjay:
Yeah. Well, I think it’s probably a combination of turning it on and I have the browser running, so I need to always remember to close it after I turn it off. So we go, I think it’s about a minute to go, folks. Welcome everyone. We’ll do a formal welcome in a little bit. Alan Holmes. Good to see you, Ellen. How are you doing my friend? Great. I’ll outcome, Janice. How are you? Long time. Yeah. Good to see you, Sandra. Yeah. So Bruce, I appreciate it, sir, for being one of the most regular ones, Bruce, your mic is on mute. No worries. I’m always here for you. I do, sir. Could you provide you together, coach Steve Smith. Welcome again, sir. Thank you. Thanks for,
Speaker 3:
Uh, thanks for doing this. Um, it’s nice to be involved, so I appreciate it.
Sanjay:
All right, folks. It’s a 12:00 PM, uh, June 11th, the year of 2021. I appreciate everybody joining today. Awesome. Fireside chat with Cindy Zuelsdorf. Uh, or she will be saying the Z, but I want to say, say her name correctly. If I could, uh, I think it has German roots. That’s that’s the best I could get, but, but we’ll get it from Sandy later on. I appreciate everybody joining you on a Friday. We are doing this on Fridays. Now we used to do Wednesday, Thursday that I said, oh, let’s do Fridays because folks are more relaxed. They’re not too concerned about what’s next. Uh, you know, and uh, so, you know, I think, uh, we’ll keep this going. Uh, again, it’s, it’s an awesome, uh, topic today. The topic is how to sell more while doing less. And you know, I’m kind of curious about it to send you here has written a new book that got released last year on Amazon and has been doing really well on the small business side of things. And I’m sure we’re going to hear thea whole lot about that in a little bit. Uh, but you know, let me share with you a couple of slides here, uh, to get the context and then, uh, let’s get the fireside chat rolling.
Sanjay:
Share my screen here quickly. Hold on. Well, the regional folks, we already talked about that, the doulas and sell more, but I want to share a quote here, which has some relevance to today’s topic about the doing less part of the doing the most important part. And you know, this is formed Brian Chesky, which most of you know now is the co-founder of Airbnb. A quick show of hands in the chat. How many of you have rented a place from Airbnb in the last few years? Uh, I think almost everybody has. Um, and he said, bill something, a hundred people, not something 1 million people kind of like, and I think that is the crux of marketing, isn’t it? You know, I think a lot of us are in a hurry to, to go a mile wide and an inch deep as they say, and that, you know, you don’t get nothing.
Sanjay:
And the reality is if you actually focus in on a few things, you know, which is, as Brian is saying a hundred people, then you may end up building something like the next Airbnb, or I think this is a great context for today’s topic as well. Uh, the do less sell more. And before we get into the fireside chat, I want to do a quick, good, quick overview, whole going. Some of you already seen this, so pardon me for repeating some of this on ongoing or we do a quick one. It’s a, it’s a growing business community or a hundred thousand members now. And our focus has always been, you know, the small growing and diverse businesses. And we, we keeping that focus, uh, you know, and, and, and thank you everybody who have joined and, and who are active and who are sharing their stories on all going well, what it does is it does three things really well.
Sanjay:
You know, if it helps you boost your social media brand, not only on all going, but on some of the key social networks, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so on. Uh, you know, so once you are active on our way and how to do that, it helps you boost your business networking online. Uh, we thought a hundred thousand members now, and, and in 99 different business categories, I think it’s a great place for you to, to join and connect and meet fellow business owners and coaches and consultants, entrepreneurs alike. So, so do that. And, and importantly, it helps you boost your SEO rank. Now this didn’t come easy. A lot of people know SEO as a kind of a dark thing, you know, in the sense of it’s complex, nobody gets it, but everybody knows that needed. And the reason is, you know, you want your website and your content to rank higher on the search engines.
Sanjay:
You know, hopefully on the first page of Google, if you really work hard at the likes of Bing and Yahoo, and now Doug to go at that quite a few new search engine, by the way they actually, uh, which are quite interesting, but the fact is the more active you are on ongoing, the higher ranking you get. And we have proven that and, and which is, which is pretty awesome, isn’t that because of the fact that we have been around for 10 plus years now, whether we’re 12th year of all going, how cool is that this June? Uh, you know, so, uh, I love you’ve been there from day one, uh, as, as coach Steele and some of the folks here, so really appreciate the journey with us. And, uh, yeah, I saw, so we got a good authentic boost by being an ongoing as in the businesses.
Sanjay:
And, uh, you know, the more active you are, the more visibility you get online for your website and to your ongoing profile. So invite everybody here to join and, and share your stories. It’s just going to all going.com and it just takes five minutes to get going. Uh, along with that, we also have affordable social media services. I know some of your market use yours. So some of what we do here overlaps with you, but, you know, our focus has always been the solar perennials and the small businesses. So what pricing is, is a keen to their budgets, and we have some awesome services starting at 99 a month and up, it’s free to join all going and share your stories. There is never going to be a fee for that, but if, if you want some of the extra boost, then we do have a few services that you can use as well.
Sanjay:
Uh, so what I want to do is, uh, depending on how many folks we have, uh, let’s, let’s see if we can get a quick round table going here. Uh, and, uh, you know, it’s a small crowd, so let’s, let’s give everybody 30 seconds or so if you all can stick to your times and, and besides, uh, sharing your, your story to the voice, I also welcome you to share it to chat. Uh, the reason is that we, everybody can see who you are and connect with you later on as well. So why don’t I start with, uh, Bruce Bruce, go ahead and give you a 30 seconds, your business yourself, and, and, you know, what’s your biggest need today and unmute your mic when you do that. Oh, can you hear me? Yes, sir. Okay. I am Bruce Webb. I, after 20 years in marketing and 20 years in sales, I know I’m working for different.
Sanjay:
I have different arrows in my quiver different services that I, I, uh, people up with mostly involving increasing the bottom line through savings, everyday savings. Like we can save somebody in 40 different operating expenses like Brayton, where you save one fruit company, 200,000, $250,000 in freight and packaging materials. So there’s a lot of ways. And everyday expenses, people who save money and they take their fee out of the savings and everybody wins. I also have a unique lending program. That’s three and a half percent, um, interest in it’s great for real estate construction, cap, capital working capital and film production, Bruce sweat. It was great. Great to see you again, sir, let’s go 30 seconds out and see if you’ve got to keep it close. Oh, dear.
Speaker 3:
Yes. Well, first of all, I want to thank you so much for being part of the 12 years, allow me to be party world. I’m honored and humbled. Um, I met Sandy in orange county a while back, um, but he has Allen Allen homes on him in California on the waiting Rancho Cucamonga community is the essence of business. And we do business with those. We know like insurance, and I am your master connector. I take every, all this information online sideline offline, you just kind of condensed it into the human element. I served in the military from 87 to 90. So take care of your veterans. Um, I specialize in collaboration with taking care of my amazing wife who has mental illness or eradicating poverty. So I’m just here to be of service, to learn from the great Steve Smith. He he’s a moderator in the corner. I miss him so much, um, just love them and fun. So thank you so much for NAMI Pirelli world. Um, Alan Holmes, massive connector and off to the next superstar. Thank you.
Sanjay:
Thank you. You mentioned cold Steve Smith. So let’s go with Steve Smith. Thank you,
Speaker 3:
Sanjay. My name is Steve Smith. My company is growth source coaching, and I work with two primary, uh, clients, uh, people who own businesses and people who are in managerial or executive level roles in larger companies. And when you really boil it down, my primary reason for being is to help people embrace and get over the change that they need to do in order to get to where they want. Most people kind of live in, in a, in a state of mediocrity, because at some point they can’t, they can’t adapt and do better. And so as a result, they just kind of live where they are. And so when I, when I work with somebody, the first thing I’m looking at is what do we need to change into? And what have you done so far? So I can help you do some new things because my, my background is in leadership management, marketing at a very large level, and I’ve learned how to scale that down to the small business environment. So that’s what I do. Thanks much.
Sanjay:
Thank you. I really appreciate your joining a journalist. Let’s go journalists. How are you? I’m busy texting Cindy right now, ¬¬¬
Cindy Z:
And it’s so fun to see other people in sales and marketing. That’s my background too, as a full-time marketer and also a sales and partnerships business development. I’ve had my own company since 2011, but I’ve also changed industries and functions about 10 times. I think in the last 10 years currently, I’m in, um, full-time augmented reality technology, um, delivering augmented reality for events, education e-commerce and advertising. Then I’m also building out a program to help others with their career shifting and their social lifting is what I’m calling it. So happy to chat with anyone about how we can collaborate.
Sanjay:
Thank you, John is looking great and good to see you again. Uh, I’ll be, I’ll be good. I’ll be my holy
Speaker 4:
Hi. Yeah. Thanks Sandra for the invite. Uh, hello everybody. My name is Aviva hula. Uh, I have a startup I’m based here in the Silicon Valley and, uh, I prime primarily operating in the healthcare space. Uh, we are working on, uh, early-stage, uh, phase of a belly health telehealth, telemedicine startup, uh, but I’m also doing, you know, investing, uh, on the side. So then a fair bit of angel investing. Um, and I also worked as a, uh, uh, software executive, uh, in the industry for awhile. Last role was at Roku, where I led the mobile engineering division. So, uh, thanks. I didn’t send you. It’s great to meet you on
Sanjay:
Rocks, who is doing awesome. I’m sure you will do great in your new startup. It looks like you see all the books in the back.
Speaker 4:
Yeah. Yeah. Love reading.
Sanjay:
You call it, recommend a book or two in your chat. That’d be great. I’ll be thank you. Let’s go. I, look, I look north, please. I look at you, though. Okay. Well is, uh, sorry I was muted. No, go ahead. Yeah. My name is Alok Nat.
Speaker 5:
I run a company called Cubaris based right here in orange county and, uh, we focus on the e-commerce logistics space. And basically what we do is we allow merchants to connect into marketplaces and e-commerce platform, and we streamline the whole backend of their shipping and fulfillment process.
Sanjay:
Good to see you all looking good, sir. Thanks for joining us. Let’s go Balaji please. Well, logic, they go down huge yourself. Yeah, please do unmute yourselves. When you guys are chatting, uh, let’s go with, uh, Brad hall. Brad, go ahead. Brad, are you online?
Speaker 5:
And everybody, the, the key to these, uh, zoom calls is holding down your space bar when you want to unmute. That is the key, because it’s really easy to just lift up your hand, um, and you instantly go back to mute. So that’s the easiest way to go back and forth, back and forth because it takes what a half a click to, to, you know, be able to comment and then instantly go back to mute. So, anyway, um, my name’s Brad hall, I’m the managing partner, uh, here in orange county, Irvine spectrum for MGO CPAs. Uh, we handle clients from, if I said 10 million to 2 billion, uh, that’s an accurate, uh, uh, area of our, our focus, um, been doing it for 40 years. Uh, love what I’m doing and, uh, glad to be a part of this group.
Sanjay:
Thank you, Brandon. And Brad is over. That is how we started all going to accounting business. So I appreciate it, Brad, historically speaking, um, uh, let’s go with, uh, Dave Austin do, go ahead please. I’m trying to unmute, there we go. And I’ll, there we go. Uh, Dave Austin, national cost recovery services, I’m walking for any benefits that would like to save on their expenses. And I made any mention the only two items we take off the table are a payroll and the physical building, the brick and mortar corridor that everything’s there for us to look at. And everything we do is on a win-win. We don’t get it, we don’t charge you until after we’re provided the savings. So it’s a definite win-win and, uh, you know, how you doing this afternoon, Bruce? You gotta talk to Dave. Dave has got tremendous experience in cost savings. Tremendous. Thank you, Bruce. And, uh, do the old buddies here. Take away more of my time. I’ll just zoom meeting. I need to get back to you guys. Just kidding. Uh, we have, uh, Aliyah shop Elliot. How are you? I guess I’m not saying the name correctly.
Speaker 3:
Hello Cindy. Nice to see you. Sorry. I probably missed the presentation right on the, on the video
Cindy Z:
Tips. No, you’re all good. We’re just, we’re doing the intro, so you’re good. Okay, so you’re good. Sorry,
Sanjay:
Go ahead and introduce yourself. So go ahead. Oh, we’ll take a look of time.
Cindy Z:
Everybody gets 30 seconds to say who they are and what they’re doing professional more than
Speaker 3:
Three decades in the broadcast business in Europe
Sanjay:
And then Canada. That’s all. Thank you. I appreciate that. That was, that was brief. And to the point lower it fell on your here. F E L L surely. I’m not saying your name correctly. Felon.
Cindy Z:
Yep. That’s great. And thank you again, Brad, for that tip that’s something I didn’t know about them. Very cool. Um, I worked with Cindy at Kokoro and I’m an automation expert. I work a lot in keeper, um, and I’m just here to learn some stuff and happy to be here.
Sanjay:
Flow flow. Good to see you get flow. Are you here
Cindy Z:
It afternoon? Good to see you as well. Thank you for the invitation. Um, my name is Flo Elkins. I am a fitness and wellness professional in the Los Angeles area. I work with female entrepreneurs as well as female master rowers, helping them lose weight, gain strength, and power and live their best life. I am the creator of lift to lose, which is living in fullness today. And I have a rowers edition as well as entrepreneurs. So thank you for having me.
Sanjay:
Well, I have to see one of your videos, especially the rowing video. I’m so curious. I was really bad at roaring. To see what I can do. Thanks for joining us. I appreciate it. What’s a hard, go ahead please. Yes, sir.
Speaker 6:
Yeah, I’m hot. What’s that? I’ll be making teeth whitening products for consumers as well as for dental offices. And we are super excited because our business is just taking off drastically going very rapidly. We’ve been invited by both Walmart, as well as target now to make presentations to them. So we think that will go very successfully, that will put us on the path to multimillion-dollar increase in the business volume. So we are excited about that. And about three months from now, we will be, uh, going to angel investors to raise about half a million dollars in, uh, uh, capital for, uh, convertible doors. And, uh, we have a lot of interest from investors, uh, invested in business, but I want to first get, uh, what target and Walmart contract signed and get going before we go to the investors. So there we are.
Sanjay:
Thank you. That’s awesome. Holly, loader progress, you guys are making them the company’s called pop white guys, so I’m sure we’ll put a link in there and great, great products. Thank you all. Uh, oh, good to see. You can hear, can do booze, Ken, how are you,
Speaker 7:
Jay? Thank you for
Speaker 4:
Hosting this today and it’s good to see you.
Sanjay:
Yeah.
Speaker 4:
Uh, my name is Ken Dubois. I’m the co-owner and co-founder of a company called business group resources. Uh, we focus on helping companies take advantage of a federal program called the research and development tax credit. In the last four years alone, we’ve helped about 1700 companies get back more than $120 million cash from that program. We’re currently averaging about a million dollars a week in recovery. It’s all our tax team does is R and D recovery and that’s it. And uh, many companies leave thousands of dollars on the table every year, simply because they don’t know about this program.
Sanjay:
Thank you again for joining and looking awesome. There let’s go with there is how are you?
Cindy Z:
I’m good. Thank you. I am Larissa marsh and I, uh, work in protection products. I work with business owners to help them protect their employees, to offer benefits, uh, insurance benefits for their employees so that they keep these employees. These benefits are at no cost to the employer, and it is not Aflac. And I also help seniors with their Medicare education and enrollment. One of the things that we do is give back to women and children in Kenya.
Sanjay:
Thank you, Theresa, and be careful when you’re driving. I really appreciate you joining. Thank you so much. Yes. Uh Ramesh uh, I’m good. Thank you.
Speaker 4:
Um, just wanted to, uh, uh, thank you Sunday, everybody in rotation, uh, you know, um, unfortunately I’m in and out. So, um, from the screen, but a little bit about my background. I am a, uh, I mean, not an investor primarily as well as a business. Uh, but I do have business business platforms from manufacturing to retail, uh, as well as I’m, I’m a board member of the di uh, so-called, uh, in, um, you know, investment fund 20, 21 as well as, uh, I’m an active member of the TCA that goes to angel group and investment club there as well. And, and I have a couple of other investment portfolios as well. So looking forward to learning from you guys, thank you
Sanjay:
And judo much for joining. Appreciate it. Quick intro of Randy, Randy, how are you? So Randy, the locksmith Johnson,
Speaker 4:
Um, retail establishment. So I got to wear a mask. Fortunately, I break into homes, businesses, and safes. I also repair them. Um, when I opened our home, it’s typically not broken. Uh, that’s not my, um, farm of entering. I get to do it legally cause I’m a locksmith and a safecracker. So company name is lock tech and I’m Randy Johnson. And thank you for
Sanjay:
Having me. Thank you, Ron. Randy, looking good with the hat and the no mask. Okay. Uh, thanks for joining.
Cindy Z:
Hi, thank you. Thanks for the tip. I’m holding my bar right now. Uh, I REM uh, rusty had rebel at rebel marketing. We have a small boutique marketing firm here in Tampa. We help our clients scale the marketing department by strategy and planning, branding, messaging, and video content. We love video content and helping our clients tell their story through video.
Sanjay:
That’s great. Rep, what is that on the screen? Is that Manhattan or is that lake? No,
Cindy Z:
I, I don’t know my husband put it up, so I just work here. I don’t actually pay attention to anything.
Sanjay:
Thanks for joining. Appreciate it. Uh, Russia, Russia. Hi, uh, I’m the CEO of matchbook AI, which is an enterprise technology company, uh, here in Los Angeles. And I’m actually, we are trying to now scale sales and marketing, uh, B2B sales and marketing, which is why I was intrigued by today’s session. Absolutely. Thanks for joining. Really appreciate you joining. And I think we have sturdy here. I think I got everybody sturdy, please. Hey, Sanjay. Good to see you. Um, yeah, I’m screening a key and business advisor. I help business owners free up their time and make more money. Um, oh, that was squeaks. That’s it? I appreciate it. Thanks. One more. One Chopra. Sorry I missed.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I’m here. I just start to leave out for five minutes. Come back. I’m Chopra. I’m a small businessman, also an author and trying to lose some, uh, Amazon. I’m trying to set up an Amazon store. So I was interested in how this works and all that stuff. Thank you very much.
Sanjay:
I appreciate it a lot. Do you use the space bar on mute? Well, I’ll do it all. Okay. One more chance. Okay. I think that’s fine. Maybe he’s a little something, but so let me formally introduce, uh, with our guest today, but before I do that, I want to do a quick pulse here on how’s business. I love doing these quick polls to get a pulse of what’s happening on your end of the things to go ahead and answer the question, and I’ll share the results, you know, for, you know, for everybody to see. Um, yes. How is business? Uh, let’s get a quick polls going from folks here in the audience, and you know, it’s about what’s happening to them. Maybe even thinking about what could happen in the next six months as well. So let me go ahead and give you five more seconds.
Sanjay:
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and out to let me go ahead and end the poll and share the results. You know, it’s good to see, uh, you know, uh, progress from what I used to see last year to this year. A lot of folks are in the good and great categories, which is awesome. I think we’ll keep that going. And, uh, a few in the old, but, uh, nobody in the not back. So that’s, that’s great. And so let’s keep that positive going for how’s business and we’ll keep doing better as the year goes by. And now let me make a formal introduction with our speaker and our guest of the day, uh, meet Cindy zoos, job, Cindy, how is it going?
Cindy Z:
So great. Thank you for having me here. Nice to meet. Everybody’s super interesting to hear about all the different businesses.
Sanjay:
Yeah. So Cindy is a CEO of Coca-Cola marketing and the author of the recent book on Amazon, which I’m sure comes from a lot of practical experience. She has, uh, you know, and, and which we’ll talk about that. Uh, the book is seven marketing basics, uh, doulas sell more than any, any time somebody is asking you to do less. You know, it always speaks to my attention. I think it’s a great title. And, uh, we’re going to do a fireside chat with Cindy now and have, you know, I’m going to ask her a few questions, but this is not just about me asking her, you know, I’m sure you all have a lot of good questions to ask her as well. So I would have you all be ready with your questions and if we can’t get to all of them, I’m sure we will get to them eventually, either through chat or, or Cindy has promised to, you know, through email as well. So again, Cindy, welcome to our fireside chat and really thank you for promoting it and sharing it with everybody on LinkedIn and beyond. So it is good to see you.
Cindy Z:
Absolutely. Thanks for having me Sunday. Really great.
Sanjay:
So, Cindy, uh, we’ll start off with a simple question. Tell us one thing that most people don’t know about you,
Cindy Z:
Right? You tip me off to this yesterday, and then I went away and didn’t think about it. Um, let’s see. Uh, well, most people on this call wouldn’t know that today I’m having a graduation party for my daughter and an hour and she graduated high school. So that’s pretty fun. And, um, something that this might be like too outside, I haven’t met the group very long, but what the heck? I worked in a music store a long time ago, and I really liked one of the bands and we sold a lot of their music and I got a tattoo of that band on my foot. So that’s something that probably most people don’t know about me.
Sanjay:
Do characters, share who the band is. No problem.
Cindy Z:
It’s not; it’s no one that I’ve listened to in ages. I don’t even know if they’re around anymore. It’s a band called and forgive me if you speak German, I want to say, it’s called …. and it was kind of this like, um, noise band. So that’s a little crazy, but there you go, something that most people don’t know about me, but Fallon’s laughing,
Sanjay:
Cindy, you a flip flops and you see that tattoo, then you know where that came from. And the other part was, I was, we’ll put you on the spot. She’s originally from Wisconsin, Madison, or she went to school there it’s a little bit further up there. She grew up there too as well. So, so compare and contrast for us. I would say Wisconsin versus California, not like you grew up there being an either, but maybe you can comparing,
Cindy Z:
Comparing Madison, Wisconsin to grass valley, California. Okay. Well, Madison, Wisconsin is really international. There’s people from all over the world there, as you walked down the street, since it’s a university town, there’s people speaking different languages and different cultures. And I loved, loved, loved that. Um, it’s a little cold there in the winter, um, though here where I live in grass valley, California, um, there is snow here and I go skiing more often here. Um, cause I’m like an hour-ish from Tahoe. I ski more now that I moved to California than I did when I lived in Wisconsin. Um, but it’s a very small town where I live, and I know Eli has been here and maybe some of, of, uh, the other folks on the call have been here as well.
Sanjay:
That’s great. That’s a good, good segue right there, Andy. And I mentioned, she’s a CEO of Kokoda marketing. You know, the name always makes, makes me curious when I see something a little different like, oh, just kidding. But Kokoda what’s, what’s the roots. What is the why behind it? And, and, and who are those customers if I may?
Cindy Z:
Oh, I’m so glad you asked about the name. I just it’s so dear to my heart because the name Kokoro means heart, mind, and spirit. And so Alan, you mentioned know like, and trust that we know like can trust the people we work with and our clients and Kokoro means no. Uh, it means heart, mind and spirit, because it’s all about knowing and liking and trusting the people that you’re working with. And because I feel like when we’re in sales, we have to know what the other person cares about. That’s what’s in it for them. What do they like? And so that’s why the name Cuccaro and I look round and round. Should I pick like a, the Dame of the local mountain is banner mountain? Should I pick some kind of grass valley name? And then I picked Kokoro and, uh, there it is.
Sanjay:
That’s awesome. No, I love it. So it does it does Japanese roots, the name itself?
Cindy Z:
The name is, uh, yeah, it’s a Japanese word. Kokoro so if you go to Japan, you’ll see tons of restaurants named Kokoro and it’s a very popular word there and you’ll see heart Kokoro and stuff like that. But anyway, I really, I really liked it.
Sanjay:
That’s great. And now we’ll make a jump into the book itself, the seven marketing basics, uh, uh, you know, how cool it is. Everyone’s number one, Amazon’s marketing for small business list. Uh, you know, that has to be a great feeling for you personally. Uh, and the book actually draws upon the Pareto principle, which many of us who have lived in Silicon Valley. I was there for 10 plus years. And some of the folks today are on the call form that, you know, the 80 20 rule, which is, you know, 80% of the results that come from 20% of the effort or that’s what the principal alludes to. But now when it comes to marketing and we have a lot of business owners and CEOs in the audience, is it really true? Cindy, can they just do 20% marketing? Would it really work?
Cindy Z:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And so the way the book came about is, and you asked who some of our customers are, so I’ll just bring that into it as well. What happened was, um, we were going along doing work Fallon and, um, Kristin and kitty and other people on our team going along, doing work for our customers. And Elian knows, we primarily work. Our, um, marketing services are in the broadcast media area. So a lot of our customers are making hardware and software. They get used and TV stations or video facilities or play out that kind of thing. And so we were looking at what’s working the most, what are we doing for everybody? And sort of, what’s not working as well. What, what are kind of one-offs and outliers. And I was sitting there with a bunch of sticky notes writing out, like what’s working on stacking them up.
Cindy Z:
And I came to, well, there’s about seven things we’re doing all the time. And those are bringing in really the bulk of the results. And so we realized that those things can be used for every business and all the folks that would call me and ask me like, Hey, can you tell me what’s working? Or can I, can I ask you a quick question? I was like, I gotta write this down and share it with everybody because it’s true. People are just working so hard working 26 hours a day and doing everything, doing all the things. And really, if you pick the things that work well, um, you don’t have to crush yourself with your schedule. You can do a few things and get a ton of results.
Sanjay:
That’s, that’s a great point. So pick the things that work well, I think that’s, that’s the bottom line here and in the book, you know, and I was able to download it on Kindle and read it to, you know, last weekend and this week as well. That is an important thing in there, which is the life cycle marketing master plan. And it’s true and which has three key pillars in there. And, and what is this plan about, you know, and I, you know, you, you mentioned in there, the word holds two opportunities. Maybe you can have us, you know, maybe give us a little more color on that.
Cindy Z:
Well, yes. Uh, it’s so important to figure out where to start and one’s business, and I’m sure Steve, you were talking about the different people you coach with, and there feels like you can do a million things, but how do you know where to start? And so we put this marketing master plan together, and I think Fallon has put in the chat. If you text in, um, you’ll get a free PDF. It’s a free resource that you can have right now. It’s got a ton of good info in it, and you can use it. And then for everybody who texts in today, we’re going to choose one winner, and I’ll send a free copy of my book to you. So just by getting that PDF today, you’re entered to win. And anyway, so the PDF, um, here’s, here’s mango. He wants to help. He likes helping with all marketing.
Cindy Z:
Um, the, the lifecycle marketing master plan is you can take about seven minutes if you don’t want to read through the whole PDF, jump to page eight. But if you read through there, it gives real-life examples of the different parts of our business to look at. So we’re going to look at, um, how do we attract our customers? Like who’s our perfect customer. How do you get them into your system? Do you have a system, right? Once you know your people, how can you educate them and help them? So that the thing they wake up at three in the morning thinking about, oh my gosh, I have to solve this. Like, how can you help them? How can you give them what they need? And then next, is it easy for them to buy from you? This sounds so crazy. Like, of course it should be easy for someone to buy from you, but some people struggle with that piece.
Cindy Z:
Um, so that’s good to look at as well. And then, um, once you’re working with your customers, how can you make sure that they just love you? And they’re super happy with you and you wow. Them and they’re thrilled and further, can you work with them? So they give you referrals automatically. And so like how, how much of this, this, so the lifecycle marketing master plan gives you a way to kind of evaluate your business pretty quickly. Like I said, seven minutes or so, look at where you’ve got opportunities or holes where you’re like, Ooh, gosh, I, you know, maybe I need help capturing people into my system, or maybe I need an easier way for people to buy or whatever the thing is. And once you identify that, once you figure out where you need to work on your business, that’s where we get into the seven marketing basics. Hey, pick one of these seven and plug it into that hole. And then that is going to take you just leaps and bounds toward making more money and having a smoother business.
Sanjay:
All right. Sounds pretty easy, actually, and quite easy to understand and implement. And what are the things that you keep mentioning is, is knowing your holder, going the gaps, how does a business actually go about finding those gaps? Because to me, there’s just so many moving parts everywhere. I mean, you know, it’s, it’s a, I mean, I, you finding the gaps through data, is it anecdotal? Is it something that you kind of just know? I mean, how do you know those gaps?
Cindy Z:
Yeah. So in the lifecycle marketing master plan, the PDF there, it does actually take you through like each of the six areas. And so probably every person on this call right now can say, yes, I know exactly who my perfect customer is, but if not, that’s a good place to start. Like, who are we selling to? Because if our answer is our, well, I sell to everyone who has money. That’s not an answer. Like it needs to be, you know, what’s the avatar, what’s the persona. Who are they like? So just starting with each piece and evaluating. And so just looking at those six areas, Sanjay is how we evaluate and sure you can take data in, obviously. So if we say maybe we have like a marketing automation, I love marketing automation. I’m like a massive fan, because then you can make money while you’re out doing things with your family and chilling.
Cindy Z:
But anyway, you can take that data and look at how many people, um, texted in to get my PDF, who then, um, decided to go ahead and buy my book or something like that. Right. You can look at the data points there, but just to start out, I think we can look, um, almost anecdotally at the areas and go, do I have an easy way for someone to buy from me? Do I have an automatic system in place to get referrals? Like those are kind of simple. Yes, no, I have them. Or maybe they’re I have them, but they need to be better. In which case you can look at it as an opportunity. I don’t know. Does that answer your question?
Sanjay:
Does that yes, it does. I mean, it’s, uh, you know, it’s, I think for each company or each owner, you have your answer. Absolutely. Absolutely. We are recording this, uh, this, uh, this is going to be streamed on it is being streamed on YouTube live and we’ll have a recording for everybody who attended. So if you have to take care of something, don’t know what it is. We’ll send you the link afterwards. Uh, I say
Cindy Z:
For the replay, people, for the folks watching the replay, you can get this free resource that we’re just talking about here by texting the word. Oh, going Sanjay’s company, all one word, watch out for spellcheck. It might like, get you on that, that text the word. Oh, going to our company phone number, which is +1 530-203-5703. So for the folks on the replay, I know you’re not seeing the chat. So I want to show that everybody can have that free resource.
Sanjay:
Absolutely. Great. Yeah. The second pillar of your marketing, you know, you talk about education, you know, lead with that, uh, you know, that, that got me going into education and health. I mean, why is that important? You know, shouldn’t the sales team focus more on selling? What the hell? I mean, education is an important issue.
Cindy Z:
You know what Larry said earlier about giving back? I’m just a hundred percent that. And so I like to give a ton of value. And so we teach that as a way to, to increase your business. And we do that with our clients. And so kind of sales 1 0 1. If the, if the customer thinks you understand their problem, then they’re willing to buy from you. Right. And so we know that from our days in sales. And so what better way to demonstrate, to get that know like, and trust going with a prospect, with a customer, then, um, understanding their problem and then educating like, okay, well, here’s how we solve this. And once they see that you really get it. Okay. Some of them will take the solution away and do it themselves and maybe might not need your product or service. But a lot of them are going to be like, oh my gosh, they totally get me. And I like them. And I wonder what else I can do with them. Or I told, I want to buy that. I want to book a call. I want their service. I want their product. So by educating, we’re building, they’ll know, like, and trust-building credibility. And then if they want to take another step with you, it’s great
Sanjay:
Understood unnecessarily. And one of the things you mentioned is understanding the buyer, you know, understand who your customer is now; what happens Cindy many times is as companies get larger, you have many decision-makers involved, right? You have the end-users, you know, you’ve got your managers of the end-users. We’ll call them gatekeepers, but they are there. And then you have, you know, the CFO or, you know, if it’s a small enough company, the CEO, you know, writing the check does, and here we have companies like obvious company. And, you know, we have, uh, uh, I wanna say Russia here, you know, with also wanting to do more things in B2B area, how interesting or difficult it becomes for companies like that to make sure that they have the messaging. Right. And they are talking, you know, Inforce person to this, uh, you know, I would say all decision-makers.
Cindy Z:
Yeah. Uh, so, so great that you bring that up
Sanjay:
And follow the lead followup as well, right? Yeah,
Cindy Z:
Yeah. A hundred percent on the lead follow-up as well. So we work with a lot of manufacturing companies, like Romesh, you’ve got manufacturing, you said that you do. Uh, and we, we do a lot with manufacturing, and in fact, Fallon and I were talking to someone last week and, uh, they’re selling a product where they end up going through a systems integrator or a dealer to that product. And we spent a bunch of time talking with them saying, awesome. And we really should know who the end-user is because how are you going to have a conversation about that? And so one of my most favorite things to do when we’re doing marketing is to jump on the phone with a sales person. I love talking to the marketing people or the product marketing manager, if the company has, uh, folks in those roles, but ultimately the person who’s the closest to the customer or the customer service person love, love, love talking to the customer service person, because we can actually use the words of the customer of the end-user in the marketing.
Cindy Z:
So I love to go to the salesperson or the customer service department and say, I know you get one or two questions over and over again. Tell me about that. Cause everyone will say, oh, everyone always asked me this. And so whatever that is can be your marketing. So whatever the objections are or the typical questions are, those are such a good resource for your marketing, whether it’s email marketing or SMS, or getting up on a stage or writing a book, whatever it is, knowing what that end customer says is the way to go. And you’re right. As a company gets bigger, people get more removed from the end-user. And I think it just needs to be a culture of knowing who the end-user is. Can I share a quick story? Actually, absolutely. When I was working in manufacturing for quite a long time, um, an ops person came in and started running operations and manufacturing and stuff like that.
Cindy Z:
And there’s a, uh, kind of a standup every day where they quickly went over, who, um, was getting a shipment that day and they changed it to say, well, customer number 1, 4, 6, 7, 2. And I met with her later and just said, Hey, I understand why you’re doing that. And could we please change back to saying, this is shipping to CBS. This is shipping to Joe’s posts or whatever it is because we need to know the people. And if it’s just a number, we lose track of what they care about. So back to Kokoro, what do they care about? What’s in it for me, not me, but for the customer. And so anyway, that’s my quick story of that process that kind of came in from a management style, that this is how we do things I’m like, but it takes the humanity out of it. And we’re going to, you know, a couple of years from now, maybe couple of months, we’re going to feel the pain of not understanding our customers, just because of this attitude.
Sanjay:
Makes sense, makes sense. Now the seven marketing basics, there are seven things businesses ought to be doing. And, you know, you figured this out because of your experience with working with so many small, medium growing businesses, you know, I love it. There’s seven things that are, you know, uh, you know, I’m not going to go through each one of them, but definitely the one that peaked my interest was the one which I think most businesses try hard, but not everyone succeeds is, you know, selling or sales from a white paper or a guide book. One of my favorites, one of the seven things is that give us some color on that. Especially, especially for both the B2B and maybe even a B to C if you can think about. Yeah, yeah,
Cindy Z:
Yeah. I have, I have an example. Yeah. In fact, we just put a little case study together, um, with that, and we don’t have it quite published yet, but if you want just, um, messaged Fallon in the chat and we can get it to you afterwards. Cause I don’t have like it on the website yet or anything. Um, so here’s the thing we were working with the customer, um, uh, in the UK actually. And in their case they have a softer product. Now they, they are primarily B2B, but this could work for B to C as well because it’s a software product. And so I’m Sandy, I’m going to actually roll two of the basics in here, including the white paper one. So we just talked really simple sales funnel stuff like at the bottom of the sales funnel, they purchase. Yay. So what do they do right before that?
Cindy Z:
I just started asking that, well, they do this and they want to try it and this and that. Tell me they want to try it. Tell me more about that. Yeah. They download a trial. Oh, okay. Okay. So I’m going to make all the marketing go to driving people to download a trial. Right? Of course like makes complete sense, but it took a lot of conversation to get there. What do people do right before they buy? But let me take you to the white paper piece because then the next piece was, what kinds of things do people need to know before they download your trial? Will they have this technical question in this case, it was a processing audio. So they have this technical question about how to process audio, and they have this other technical question about it, how to integrate with this other equipment.
Cindy Z:
Great. So we came up with a white paper on that topic. So now we have a pretty basic sales funnel where people find out about you. Um, we ask them, would you like this white paper? If they download the white paper, they’ve self selected. Like no one downloads a white paper, unless they’re interested in that topic. Right? Like random people don’t download white papers usually. And then we send them helpful information. That’s really excerpted from the white paper, with every single one of them with the call to action saying if this makes sense, go ahead and download the trial. And then once they download the trial, now we can have a salesperson phone them or pick up the process in an automatic way,
Sanjay:
Two basics in there. One is the white paper and the guide or the ebook. And second is the child. Right. Because that’s another one. Yeah, that’s awesome.
Cindy Z:
And that, that will work just as well for B to C as it would for B to B. So we’re working right now with a chemical company and they sell B to C it’s a chemical that gets used widely by people and same kind of process. Exactly. So, and in their case, um, white paper and then go to a small sample and then make a purchase
Sanjay:
For somebody like Bobwhite, who was here, was, uh, you know, where they sell this amazing teeth, whitening, all organic vegan products. You’re seeing a white paper or, or a guide of sorts that, that helps educate the consumer would probably go a long way towards not only making them more loyal. But do you think that they would buy more eventually you think,
Cindy Z:
Well, yeah, if you, if we’re in the case of teeth whitening and I don’t know what marketing they’re doing, but you know, maybe like, um, five, five things to avoid when choosing a tooth whitener, I don’t know, like something like that, that’s going to get people like, well, yeah. I want to know what to avoid because we all know from sales basics that people are more away buyers than towards buyers. So they’re like, especially top of the funnel, oh, I want to avoid that. Or I want to, you know, deal with this cause it’s broken. Whereas, uh, towards buyers, maybe like I want the latest thing. So both are valid. Um, but anyway, yes. So a guide maybe instructing someone like either what to choose or what not to choose in their teeth whitener, especially if it’s vegan, you could get into the organic bits and stuff.
Sanjay:
Yeah. So educational things that educate the buyer, you know, along the journey. That’s awesome. Um, so that, that gives us a sense of a marketing base. Again, you were saying once a company figures out from the seven basics that you are sharing your book, you’re saying you don’t have to even do all seven. You’re saying basically take one or two that works really well and run with it. And that’s the bottom line. That’s where you can do 20% of your effort. I mean, sorry. And then you can really grow out your 80% if you do those really well. Is that the Genesis?
Cindy Z:
Exactly. So, and to, to kind of jump further off of your question around the guide white paper piece, um, I think it was Rob said, you know, all about video content and, and stuff for clients. And so one way we do this type of thing with the folks we work with is they’ll say, well, I don’t want to write a guide or white paper. It’s too hard. No worries. Let’s would you be willing to talk about it? Oh yeah. I talk about it all the time. Great. So either now we just get them on video and talk with them and we grab snippets out of that. Or maybe they’re more comfortable talking with their customer or coworker on a webinar like this. And we take that content and we have a webinar and then turn it into a white paper or guide and then turn it into a bunch of social posts of snippets. So you can take that and repurpose it out. Maybe the main goal is I need to educate, and I’m going to do a webinar to do my education, but then you can spin the content out into other bits and pieces as well.
Sanjay:
Right? And you’re saying, once you have established and created that content, you want to put it on your website. You want to share those links on your social channels. You know, you want to send them in an email and so everywhere where your potential customers can find that because obviously they need to find that in order for them to eventually do business with you,
Cindy Z:
We do, we want to be everywhere because our customers, our clients might be at a trade show. If they’re getting back to in-person trade shows, they might be on ongoing. They might be at the store, or they might be at the chamber of commerce. They might be only online, or maybe we need to call them. But whatever the thing is, um, we can kind of go through and be almost, um, present everywhere. And in the book, I kind of layout exactly how we do it for our clients. So you can just take what we did and we do it. And then I made, uh, for people who want a deeper dive, I have an online course that lays out our exact templates. Like, here’s exactly how we did this. You can take it and do it yourself. So that, like you said, you want to have it in all these places. We lay that all out for Fox as well.
Sanjay:
You mentioned an online course. Are you seeing that is a training though, available for the book?
Cindy Z:
Yeah, there is. I know you, you and I didn’t even talk about that the other day, but I do have the seven marketing basics course. So for people who want a deeper dive, the book’s great. It gets into it. You could take the book and run with it. Um, we also had some people that are like, can you show me step by step? What to do? Can you show me step-by-step how to make a guide or white paper and how to promote it? Yes, I can. So we have a video course with templates and everything that people can just dig in and do. Yeah. And it’s super affordable because we want to be able to help people and businesses of all sizes. That’s our, that’s our goal. We want to make it possible for everyone to take advantage.
Sanjay:
That’s fantastic. One of the other basics, an important basics as well, you know, in on the seven is social media and, and you know, of course all going is a very good platform for social media, especially, you know, for business to business. And you want to share some great content. The challenge that I’ve found Cindy with social media is that it’s just so much content out there, uh, trying to catch people’s attention as they are out there, you know, on different markets, you know, different profiles like LinkedIn. And, you know, I would say Facebook, if you’re out on the beach to side Instagram and so on, how do businesses focus on the channel? That makes sense for them. And importantly, once they are on social media, what things they do differently,
Cindy Z:
I love that. That’s perfect. And I have to say, one of the reasons we did social media is one of the seven basics is this is what I would hear all the time. I know I should do social media, but I just don’t want to, or I don’t have time or I don’t know what to do. So that’s like kind of a typical comment. And so we just felt like this has to be one of the seven basics. And so how to find out what platform, um, where are your perfect customers hanging out? So sort of back to the step, one of like, who’s your perfect customer. So like for us, our perfect customer is an overwhelmed marketer. I talked with someone on Wednesday morning. Who’s like, oh, we have all these global initiatives. I’m totally overwhelmed. I don’t know what to do. And so that’s our typical person we work with or a CEO or someone in charge of a company is like, I know I need marketing, but I don’t have time to do it.
Cindy Z:
I don’t want to do it. So those are our kind of two avatars or personas. And so for us, we look at where do those people hang out. And so that includes social media. And so your point of, are they on LinkedIn? Are they on Facebook? Where are they? And then I think it has to give value like you’re doing here. Uh, Sandra, you’re giving value by you’ve got ongoing happening. And you’re making sure that the people who are part of your group or your tribe are getting a ton of value. And so that’s like everything. It’s like being one in, you know, 10,000 boosts at a trade show, how do you get people to your booth? Will you make sure you give them some value? Right? Like a relationship know, like, and trust and value. And I think that applies to social media just as well as every other in person. Does that answer your question at all?
Sanjay:
Yes, it does. I mean, I think, uh, it’s what happens to me is when I log into many of those networks later, you know, there’s just so much information that comes at me. I mean, I, I spent like 10, 20, 30 minutes at the most. And, and you know, if you ended up following or connecting with a thousand or 2000 people or more, or even drags on top of that, there’s a lot of content, you know, that you get bombarded with it. So what I, what I’m looking at is what is it that’s going to stick right. When I see everything that I spend 10 minutes, let’s say on LinkedIn, on autos those 10 minutes what is that one piece of content that I really loved seeing or engaging with, and now I’m going to remember it and maybe think back or getting back to it. I think to me, that’s becoming an interesting conundrum nowadays, you know, for social marketing,
Cindy Z:
I mean, there’s metrics, right? So we can look at that. And so that’s a great way to do it. Is sample ourselves. What do we like sample what our perfect customer likes and then actually look at the metrics. So we’re using, um, we’ve been using sprout, but started using Agorapulse for a lot of our, um, marketing, our social media marketing. And so we can just look in there and see like, okay, for this particular company, what type of content gets the most engagement and stuff like that. But like really simple, anecdotally, we were working with someone who we got him to put a video up. That’s just 20 seconds. Hey, we’re going to be talking about this, that, and the other thing at this show. And I think you’ll like it, it will help you with this problem. And he got 700 plus views right away and got a couple appointments out of it. So anecdotally, we can say like that worked, and then I can take that and use it for other customers, but then you can use metrics too.
Speaker 3:
Hey Sanjay, can I, can I make a comment here? Uh, and, and listen, Cindy, uh, the information that you’ve put out here is really good and I wanted to kind of support an echo. One thing that you said earlier, which I find a lot of people making huge mistakes with marketing on, they don’t pick one strategy and stick with it long enough, they try one, oh, gee, I didn’t get my million dollars and I’m going to try something else. They bounce around, and they confuse most of the people that are following them. And they, they, they train themselves not to stay with anything long enough to see it work. So whatever of the seven you, that you offer in your book, my advice to everybody here is to pick the one that you think will be easiest for you to sustain, and then just keep driving it. I’m talking 5, 6, 7 months. Yes.
Cindy Z:
Oh, Steve, come back. Somehow you got muted. We missed you after 5, 6, 7 months, but you’re totally brilliant. So I want to hear the rest.
Speaker 3:
No, look in the sales game, what I’ve learned, and this has been published. I didn’t come up with this, that it usually takes between five and eight touchpoints for somebody to engage and actually show interest in what you’re talking about. And in marketing is the same way. And if you’re not constantly hitting them over your preferred channel, whether it’s LinkedIn or Instagram or YouTube or whichever one you found seems to be the best lane on the highway to operate in. And if you’re not doing that enough, you’re just not building enough visibility for people to wake up and say, gee, I see this everywhere. I guess I should do something with it.
Sanjay:
Absolutely.
Cindy Z:
A hundred percent agree with you, Steve, all the way, because, and we’ll talk with folks all the time. We’re like, well, I, I sent that one email out and I’m like, okay. So if we ha, if we had a 25% open rate on that, that’s, you know, you’re one in four people who might have paid attention and email’s still awesome. And we need to tell people a whole lot more times and just cause you’re tired of it. Let’s go ahead and get that message out there for the next couple of years, even if it’s from different angles,
Sanjay:
Right? Yeah. That’s a good point. You just talked about that one email and nothing happening. And this happens a lot. Actually, a new lead comes in, uh, Cindy lends to you and, and what happens is, uh, it doesn’t immediately reserves. And the next thing you know, it just simply fades away. What is the owner or the sales team doing wrong? This happens more often than not.
Cindy Z:
Oh my gosh, it’s so true. Because as salespeople, we, we want to sell, uh, things that are going to close in the next 30 to 60 days or whatever the cycle is on, on the buying cycle as the time is on, on your product or your service. But most salespeople are in that 30 to 60 day range because that’s what they’re doing. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Uh, but then, for the marketing, we have to stay in touch so that once someone’s budget comes due, or someone has a light bulb goes, oh, aha, I get that. That’s why I need that. That we’re there. And they’re thinking of us. So yeah, super important to have a automated systems in place to stay in touch with people. So they think of you.
Sanjay:
Absolutely. So one last question before I give it up, you know, to all our audience members who I know that you all have questions for her and Sunni, the question I had was this, what is the most important tip or idea that didn’t make it into the book, you know? And, and, and maybe combined with that, a very hard lesson that you have learned that could have been avoided. So yeah. Two questions in one that’s all right. That’s all right.
Cindy Z:
So something that I found super valuable, if I can share this, is finding another person that I can meet with regularly. So, and I just want to recommend this to everybody. It’s not in the seven marketing basics book. It’s not, it’s not maybe a basic for marketing, but for business. I want to say that, um, on Thursdays I meet with Sharon, and on Fridays, I meet with bill and on Friday afternoons, I meet with the group of women who are keep certified partners and we all share information and help each other out. Um, some people would call it accountability. I don’t know why I’m not a huge fan of that word, but whatever. I like to think of it more like helping each other out and sharing, okay, like these are my goals for the coming week. You know, for this week, I’m going to do two videos, promoting my ongoing appearance and be sure that I send messages out to people to invite them or whatever the thing is.
Cindy Z:
Right. And just meeting with someone every week, even if they’re not in your same, uh, line of business, it’s the best thing ever. So I want to share that as an idea and helping every single person here grow their business, no matter what size and in a bigger company, you might call it a mentor or something like that. And then maybe have a paid mentor or paid business coach. Um, and, but there’s no reason a solopreneur or a smaller business person can’t do this. You can do it. There’s other people out there like you who want to grow their businesses, and you can share and grow together. So that’s, that’s one of my big ones, Sanjay.
Sanjay:
That’s an important one, right? There have a, somebody who you can trust and get advice from. And maybe you wouldn’t have a sound off, you know, bullish, right? So new ideas and things like that. Um, questions from the audience, you can unmute your mic, uh, as Brad has given us a, to just use the space bar and, and fire away or questions, we welcome you and put it in chat. If you don’t want to ask her directly, but this is your time go, go for, it was the next question
Speaker 5:
I heard Steve say it takes seven to eight. I think Steve, that used to be, and I don’t want to say pre COVID. Um, I’ve heard that the time is now more like the 10 to 12 touches that, uh, people are really not responsive. Uh, I think the seven to eight might’ve been, you know, a long time ago when they did that survey, but it’s, it’s gone up to much more touches I think today. And I think Cindy might agree to that.
Cindy Z:
Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen things that say, well, you need to get your message out there 27 times. Cause they’re only going to see it a third of the time. So it depends on what numbers you take. But what my takeaway from that is, uh, one email or one post or one phone call is not enough. And we know that from sales anyway, right. And sales is just, I mean, marketing is just really, the sales conversation turned into another medium, I think. And so, yes, I am with you many, many, many touches and just cause we’re tired of it. And we think it’s old news. It’s not. Cause how many times do you run into someone who you think like this is a friend of mine and they don’t even know what I do. I can say that. I, I learned this lesson the hard way.
Cindy Z:
So Sunday you were asking for hard-learned lessons. I can think of so many, but this one fits right now. Um, I was talking to somebody, um, and, and he was, uh, an Ilia you’ll know this person, he’s an engineer at ESPN. And this is when I was selling hardware. And he said, oh, I just bought a whole bunch of this particular kind of hardware and my heart sunk. And I looked at him, I’m like, you know what, I have that too. And he goes, oh, I didn’t know you made that. And I thought, I talked to this person every week, I’ve completely failed. You know, like I think everyone knows what I have to offer. And clearly I missed the boat on that one. So, uh, many touches. Yes, please.
Sanjay:
Uh, go ahead. Next question for Cindy open, open, open platform. Anybody can fight over the question.
Speaker 4:
I have, I have a question, Cindy. Uh, great, uh, you know, great talking points so far. So, you know, just to give a little bit of my background, this is my first startup, you know, uh, like first startup, first time founder, um, things that I’ve, I’m finding hard coming from a very strong technical background is just the world of outreach, like reaching out to people and them to do something. And it’s not even about like selling something, right. It’s just about getting them to talk to you. So for example, uh, in the current phase that we are in, we are really talking to prospective, you know, uh, customers are people who can be interested in, in the space that we are building, right. Which is the telehealth, healthcare and health tech, uh, the cutting edge of technology combined with the very traditional antiquated world of healthcare. So you’re trying to find a lot of people. So what are your tips for reaching out in a way that they will respond? I know there are a lot of things that, uh, you know, I’ve kind of suggested, but anything that kind of jumps, uh, at the top of your mind for somebody like me, uh, and which can be very actionable, so to speak. Thanks.
Cindy Z:
Absolutely. Abby, uh, one thing that comes to mind is asking a question. So people are often really happy to help you. Uh, I’ll help. If anybody calls me and asked me a question, I’ll totally talk to them and help them. And I think a lot of people are like that and they’ll gladly help. So if you have a question for them, um, maybe, you know, I’m working on this new software on telehealth and we’re deciding if a or B or better. And I just, if you have two seconds to let me know what you think, something like that, people want to be helpful. And especially if you have a relationship with them, that works so very, very well. So I don’t know if that’s the kind of thing you’re thinking of. Does that resonate at all to you?
Speaker 4:
Absolutely. You know, one of the hard things, a lot of the things we are having a hard time with is scheduling a quick, say zoom call for 15, 20 minutes. You know, they’re doing like customer discovery, for example, where just like rapid fire in not 10, 15 questions, we ask them. And then we kind of try to understand the lay of the land, uh, like where they operate. So, uh, so yeah, it’s similar, but you know, uh, I mean, uh, it’s not always a hundred percent hit rate when you send that LinkedIn message or email, right.
Cindy Z:
A hundred percent hit rate is never in my experience. So it’s just numbers. So if you, if you even get a 50% hit rate, I’d say you’re killing it. Um, so if you know that, okay, for every hundred people I ask 25, say yes, to doing this quick call with me right on. And then just take, I mean, if you’re doing that stuff, I’d be, you’re probably doing this, transcribe those calls and take the actual language out and start using that in your marketing. That’s stuff’s gold. Right. And then how can you make those people feel special and feel like they’re in with you on the designing of the product so that they become your advocate. Like, I’m sure you wouldn’t do this. Somebody might like to have a focus group or thing like that. And the person feels like they just had all this info sucked out them, but they didn’t get anything in return, and they’re going to feel bad. So if you can get them in there, so they feel like they’re enrolled in, like they helped design the product. Like that’s the best thing ever. So just 2 cents on, on that.
Speaker 4:
Yeah. Fantastic tip. Yeah. Make them feel included in whatever you’re doing. Yes.
Cindy Z:
Like they, they actually were in the inner circle that helped design this, and they informed the decision that the product wants this direction. Like how cool is that? Bingo. Thank you. Yeah.
Sanjay:
And on your messages, I’ll be, you can try ABC different types of messages to see which one gives you the best return on your, on the replies. Won’t be shy and trying that out. I mean, you don’t know what messages are going to stick with your potential customers that you need input. Yeah,
Speaker 4:
That’s right. We call it the AB testing, right? Like the different versions of the same website and see what gets more clicks.
Sanjay:
Absolutely. The next question for Sydney. What’s next?
Speaker 3:
Uh, Cindy, this is Alan at home, um, on here and sunny and humid on way to Rancho Cucamonga. First of all, an amazing, amazing presentation, young lady. Um, I believe that you were, um, sharing your incredible information for half of the affiliate network marketers that are out there. I don’t know if that is a matching affiliate marketer. And I, you know, I’ve been working with moving towards the ongoing training for, for 12 years. And I want to follow up with a accountability. I’m putting myself on blast in front of everybody to connect with them. My question, um, is how do you take a Philly marketer who just gobbles every bit of information that’s out there and slow them down the long enough to say, you know what, here is dah, dah, dah, how do you move to there? And because I actually tend to work with the affiliate marketing and now with some of the online virtual expos, I can do small medium-sized business. And then this morning with nonprofits for probably a young lady who is with, um, a, a veterans group, because I’m a veteran myself. So you have all those moving parts and everything else. I love your seven steps, but how do you take that and slow that down for those network marketers or the affiliate, marketers are the ones who just got all this information, and they’re on this adrenaline rush and then a crash, if that makes any sense.
Cindy Z:
So is it that they’re just like a machine, like they’re sucking all the influence, but there maybe you’re wishing they would take action and actually put it into practice. Is that more what it’s about? Or tell me what the desired outcome is. What do you wish was happening instead? Tell me more about that.
Speaker 3:
Okay. Yeah. I, I believe, I wish they would just take all, take their information and make some kind of decision on realizing that this is what they need to do because I realize it and I’ll go use myself. Cause I don’t want to use it, but people do not wake up in the morning and say, Hey, you know what? I want to do business. What else? Who does that, Alan? Cause he does all this over, then one day he does this and he has other information and essentially, and I’ve had this for years. He’s testing me. Then I know this. I mean, we need 12 years to have this conversation. You know, it’s just an amazing, but that’s the decision and that stuck in analysis paralysis. But I loved that white paper. You said that I’ve never even thought about that, taking them to make the trial because they, they get in together all these little acorns, but then you’re like, okay, it’s six years later and they’re still in the world. They not, and I feel like I myself have been caught up in that conundrum.
Cindy Z:
I have an idea I could throw out there if that’s okay. I’ll I’m molding. What if, what if there was more of a six week group or six week challenge? Like we’re going to, I’m just going to pick mine since we’re talking seven marketing basics, be pick whatever you want. So we’re going to pick the, build a, a guide or checklist or white paper, and you’re going to invite your affiliates to, Hey, we’re going to have a six week challenge. And on week one, we’re deciding who our perfect customer is. And on week two, we’re deciding what the topic is and writing out the three bullet points and you know, whatever the thing is and you’d make that. So they, they’re not just going to gobble it in and then do nothing analysis paralysis. Like you said, which Fallon knows, we talk about this all the time. I’m like, oh my gosh, just do it. And iterate like stuff up, trying to make it perfect. Um, but put together a six week or five week challenge your group and then like, just break it out bit by bit. And then, okay, next week everybody’s going to show up with X, you know, and like it’s real clear. How does that resonate with you?
Speaker 3:
That is actually acts, and I’m definitely going to get your seven books and pick one of the seven because I tend to grab about 12. So thank you so much will be an important panel. Thank you. Thank you.
Sanjay:
Anybody else? Anyone else has a question for Cindy? Go ahead, please. We have maybe a couple of more minutes before we close this fireside chat.
Cindy Z:
And if you haven’t texted in to get the free resource, do that, and then anybody on that today, we’re going to just use Siri and just do a random number. And then we’ll text you back later today and say, Hey, you’re the winner and ship a book off. So one of you guys will win the book.
Sanjay:
Yeah. Uh, yeah. So filing, just sending the message on the text, how to tax and all that. Uh, if no one has I, one last question for Cindy, which I forgot to ask earlier, the, the rule of 70 and, and why that is important, especially in the world we live today where buyers really do a lot of homework and, and through many different venues. So Cindy, if you can close with that and, uh, and uh, you know, enlighten us on that. Yeah.
Cindy Z:
Yeah. And you know, that ties right in to what we were touching on earlier is that there are so many touches that it takes for people to find out about you. And so we do have people coming to our website and researching and getting to know who we are before they make a decision. We don’t even know they’re deciding. So they’re checking us out on YouTube, on LinkedIn, on O going on our websites and our emails, deciding are we going to work with them or not? And they might decide before we, uh, need, uh, before we even know who they are and we need to have something in place to help them connect with us so we can have that conversation. So Alan, like you’d be offering your six week challenge to get them in there before they decide. I read all my own stuff and I’m not going to talk to them, like, have something, have a place where you can invite people.
Cindy Z:
Like, I want to invite everyone here to my free Facebook group. That way we can have a relationship. So always have a place where you can invite people because, um, we want to engage with them and help them in their decision-making, whether they’re gonna work with us or not be in our group or not. And that’s really what the rule of seventies is all about is people are making those decisions, uh, and doing all their research. Sometimes we don’t know it, but if we put something in place to where they can have a conversation with us and join us when we make it easy for them to do that, that is better for everybody’s business. Does that answer your question Sanjay? Is that what you were going for?
Sanjay:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It’s about the multiple touchpoints when people spend 70% of their research time before they even think of buying something. And, and I think, uh, I think that’s something very important, especially from an educational point of view, right? The more education you can provide to, to your, not just one buyer, but all the potential decision-makers, uh, upfront everybody involved in the decision making cycle of, if you may, uh, the more I would say compelled, they would be to take action and, and potentially do business with you. So I would say, keep that in mind, you know, as to how many folks are out there, researching your products, your services, your company, and, and I think the more information you provide, you know, the more, uh, not, not too much information with the one which is relevant for the decision making, do have a follow to that.
Cindy Z:
Some people are afraid to give away too much information. I don’t want to give away all my secrets because then they’ll never buy from me. I want to say, don’t be afraid of that. Don’t be afraid of that. Go ahead and give away your best information. And, um, as Alan mentioned earlier, that’s how they start to know like, and trust you and how you can build that up, like give away your best stuff. And that’s how you gain more customers and grow your business. So
Sanjay:
That has changed, right? So that used to be where some of that information, or most of it, you would only do it in a sales demo or in a live demo. But now I think the rules of the game have changed. You’re right. I think more is better. The model upfront in four, you give the better, of course you can keep, keep a people wall in the front where they have to fill in that information, but still give them all the education that needed ahead of time. So that by the time they talk to somebody at your company, I think they have most everything. They really need to make a decision. Yeah.
Cindy Z:
Well said, exactly. I agree with you. Yeah.
Sanjay:
Well, if we have no more questions, I will say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you to Cindy and Farlan and the team at had to, uh, you know, to co Coro and, uh, you know, the book, I mean, everything, what you all are doing. It’s amazing. Thank you, Sydney water, amazing fireside chat and all the questions you answered and, and the tips you’re given really appreciate it. We have recorded this. I’m sure folks can go back and review them later on. And, uh, you know, I, I think everybody will agree here who are still here, that this was a really good conversation with you. Thank you, Sydney.
Cindy Z:
Thank you, Sanjay. Thank you everybody. I hope you have a beautiful day, a beautiful weekend. And, um, I’ll look for you in my seven marketing basics, Facebook group. And I look for you on ongoing.
Sanjay:
Absolutely. Have a wonderful rest of the day and the month of June, when trolley come up with the next round table. I know the chat very soon and look for updates from me. Have a great weekend guys. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Bye.
