We discuss: Graphics design, Web hacking/cheats and web design, Full blogging gists, Health and Fitness, sports and recreations, More gists and stories, News and updates, Gossips and lifestyle, entertainment and inspirations..
Last month, a federal judge in Delaware partially dismissed a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission alleging violation of antitrust laws. The dismissal has drawn attention, particularly, due to a ruling that the agency failed to meet a procedural pre-requisite for permanent injunctive relief.
The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Shire ViroPharma Inc., U.S. District Court, District of Delaware. Of factual importance, the FTC alleged that ViroPharma, which Shire acquired in 2014, had repeatedly filed unsupported citizen petitions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 2006 to 2012 to try to block or delay the marketing of generic versions of an antibiotic. The FTC filed a lawsuit in early 2017.
Defendant asserted that because the alleged conduct occurred in the past, the Commission failed to invoke its authority to seek an injunction. The FTC argued, in part, that the appropriate pleading standard should be whether the wrongful conduct was “likely to recur.”
While the court called the argument “novel,” it ultimately agreed that the FTC’s ability to seek a permanent injunction is dependent upon establishing the existence of a reason to believe that a defendant is violating, or is about to violate, a law enforced by the FTC.
Judge Richard G. Andrews stated, “I do not think these allegations, without more, plausibly suggest ViroPharma is ‘about to violate’ any law enforced by the FTC, particularly when the alleged misconduct ceased almost five years before filing of the complaint.”
While defendant’s motion to dismiss was granted pursuant, the FTC has been provided with the opportunity to amend its complaint. The opinion itself appears to suggest ways that the FTC may be able to overcome presently existing pleading hurdles.
Query whether the agency will amend or appeal. It will also be interesting to see how this decision ultimately impacts the FTC’s ability to bring consumer protection cases based upon past violations. However, at least for now, it may be a useful arrow in the quiver of those faced with a regulatory investigation or enforcement action.
Consult with an FTC defense attorney for further information regarding recent FTC investigation and enforcement trends, or if you are the subject of a regulatory action.
Richard B. Newman is an Internet marketing compliance and regulatory defense attorney at Hinch Newman LLP focusing on advertising and digital media matters. His practice includes conducting legal compliance reviews of advertising campaigns, representing clients in investigations and enforcement actions brought by the Federal Trade Commission and state Attorneys General, commercial litigation, advising clients on promotional marketing programs, and negotiating and drafting legal agreements.
ADVERTISING MATERIAL. These materials are provided for informational purposes only and are not to be considered legal advice, nor do they create a lawyer-client relationship. No person should act or rely on any information in this article without seeking the advice of an attorney. Information on previous case results does not guarantee a similar future result. Hinch Newman LLP | 40 Wall St., 35thFloor, New York, NY 10005 | (212) 756-8777.
To start finding new customers, quickly center your first media campaign on these must-haves.
5 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Getting the word out about your startup business is always a challenge. But at least there are a handful of techniques you can focus on to jump-start your early marketing efforts, all of which are available on a cost-effective basis.
1. Utilizing paid search.
Paid search is an obvious choice. When people are searching for your products or services on the search engines, you need to make sure they can find you. Organic search from search engine optimization efforts are out of your control (although you should do your best to optimize your site for success there). But paid search is 100 percent in your control and can drive immediate traffic out of the gate.
Yes, there are other search engines beyond Google (e.g., Bing, Yahoo, Ask, AOL), but Google controls 65 percent of the search market and an even bigger percentage of the mobile market for search, given its Android platform powers over 80 percent of mobile phones out there. So, if you were going to focus on one place, Google is it. There is much good advice on specific search engine marketing strategies to help get you started.
To give you a sense to how easy it is to drill down to your specific demographic, psychographic or other consumer interests, seek out information about what targeting is possible on Facebook. If you have the time to focus on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or other social networks, you can add those in after Facebook. The only exception would be if you are a B2B business, where LinkedIn may be a better place to start.
3. Showing up in marketplaces.
If you are a product seller, there is no better place to get started than Amazon. An amazing 65 percent of all shopping searches start at Amazon, which has successfully wrestled that function away from Google over the last few years. Not only can Amazon help you with marketing to their audience, but they can also help you with any warehousing or distribution needs for those products they sell for you.
There are other marketplaces like Walmart, Jet, eBay, Wanelo, Rakuten and Sears. But, if you are trying to move the needle with a ton of volume, there is no better place to focus than Amazon. That said, when you are setting up your Google AdWords campaign above, I would also turn on Google Shopping campaigns and distribute your product feed through their shopping search capabilities, as well.
4. Retargeting techniques.
The above three categories are helping you find new customers, but there is nothing more effective than going after known past customers or prospects using retargeting techniques. How it works: When a user visits your website, a retargeting technology drops a cookie onto their computer, which follows them across the internet. Then, as ads are run on those third-party sites (e.g., checking email on Yahoo, reading news on CNN, watching sports on ESPN), retargeting companies can push your ads to those exact same users.
This works particularly well using dynamically generated creatives that publish the exact same products the users were looking at on your website. Especially when you are targeting users that went all the way through the purchase process on your website but abandoned their cart or checkout process.
Criteo is the biggest player in this space, claiming that can get your ads up on approximately 2,000,000 websites, including many of the big ones like Facebook. Their reach is around six times larger the next big player, AdRoll. Google and Facebook also offer retargeting options of their own ad platforms, but the advantage of Criteo is as a one-stop shop for retargeting across the web. Google can only get you on their network sites, about 25 percent of the reach of Criteo. That said, the rates on Google and Facebook can be cheaper, without Criteo’s middleman fees included.
5. Finding look-alike audiences.
Once you have found known customers that have an affinity for your product or service, nothing is better than finding look-alikes to those customers. This lets you focus your new customer marketing efforts.
For example, if you copy and paste your customer email list into Facebook’s advertising tools, they will recommend new prospective customers to market to who share similar attributes as those on the list. Let’s say you are selling beauty products, and Facebook can see that your customers’ emails match to 18-to-25-year-old women who are fans of Style magazine and listen to Ariana Grande music. Facebook can match new people whose profile looks exactly like that -- look-alikes. Very cool!
Anyway, there is a wide world of options to consider when setting your marketing strategies, campaigns and tactics. But if you are looking for a quick cheat sheet on how to start driving new customers en masse, using cost-effective, pay-for-performance techniques, these five options are the way to go.
While the economy has rebounded from the Great Recession, Biz2Credit found big banks still only approve about a quarter of the small-business-loan applications. Many companies are experiencing increased opportunities and funding. Yet, small businesses aren’t enjoying the same spoils. That may make it seem like the future of finance in small business may be more challenging.
Biz2Credit noted small-business-loan approval rates remain stagnant among institutional lenders. Small businesses can always entertain the possibility of earning funds through traditional banks. However, it’s smart to investigate other financing avenues as part of the future of finance in small business.
Many of these newer avenues to financing are poised to disrupt the industry. This is much like the small businesses they support. As financial outlets develop, they are addressing the challenges facing small businesses. However, there are other issues related to the future of finance in small business.
The challenges with the future of finance in small business
Traditional banks and financial institutions are built to service large businesses. This means their systems and processes are designed to assess risk in terms of big businesses with varied resources.
Some of the problems originate from simple data-gathering issues. The data isn’t consistent because three main credit bureaus are deciphering and delivering information about a candidate’s creditworthiness. Underwriting asks for endless reams of data about a business’s revenue. They also want to know about lines of credit and borrowing history. The time spent reconciling that information can also feel endless.
Worst of all, many lenders will use a small-business owner’s personal credit risk as a symbol of the business’s risk. Because these lenders use scoring models designed for either big businesses or individual consumers, they’re forced to try to apply their template for individuals to a small business. This results in the need for lots of judgment calls and system overrides. The more hoops a business owner has to jump through, the more likely he is to get caught in one of them.
That’s the process a small business endures with just one lender. Multiply that by five if an owner is shopping rates, and they are juggling several lengthy processes. Also, they are unearthing different sets of information for each. Because each asks for unique information, it’s difficult for many business owners to understand how they can improve their chances of accessing credit. Thus, they may find themselves in a loop of credit madness, using the same techniques to generate different outcomes and never knowing why.
The options shaping the future of finance in small business
Traditional lenders could be great options for small businesses. However, they would need to develop systems to evaluate small businesses by standards specific to their size and resources. Updating their scoring models, automating data collection, and streamlining their funding processes would benefit both. This would better indicate the degree of success a business could achieve with a lender’s help. Alternative finance, however, offers a window into what traditional lenders might hope to become.
Online lending
Online lenders offer loans similar to bank loans. Yet, they offer a more streamlined product. These loans typically have less stringent qualifying requirements in terms of revenue, tenure and credit rating. Their processes are built on online platforms that allow for application and funding in the same space. Therefore, they demand fewer reviews and offer enhanced accessibility. These lenders eliminate lengthy wait times for qualification. Additionally, they assess more than credit history. Therefore, small businesses do not have to offer extensive collateral.
Kabbage, an online lender, streamlined its application process. They focus on live data connections to analyze a company’s real-time business performance over credit scores. A candidate must have been in business for a minimum of one year and achieved $50,000 in revenue in the past year or $4,200 per month over the past three months. This allows businesses to access lines of credit up to $250,000 with a free application that only takes 10 minutes.
Kabbage renders its decisions in real time. This means small businesses can use their lines of credit upon approval. It also highlights the benefits for users. Owners can maintain equity and control of their business. They keep their personal finances separate. Also, they avoid alienating those closest to them by accessing funds through a third party instead.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding platforms are another alternative financing outlet. This online pitching asks small-business owners to convince others that their companies are worth investing in. Crowdfunding asks people to invest in a given business, product or campaign. But the funds often don’t need to be repaid directly. Small businesses may issue lenders a free version of the item they supported or a percentage of future revenue.
Fundable is a crowdfunding platform dedicated solely to businesses. The site educates users on the fundraising process. They have built guides on crowdfunding, business operations and investing. It prohibits certain types of businesses and charges a monthly rate in lieu of taking a cut of the money earned. Also, Fundable allows users to determine whether they want to give rewards or equity to investors.
Invoice factoring
Invoice factoring is an alternative funding method. It relies on outstanding invoices rather than a business’s credit history. In this model, an invoice factoring company purchases a small business’s unpaid invoices at a discounted rate. This puts the focus on customers’ ability to pay rather than on the small business.
BlueVine is a company offering invoice factoring. It has built a streamlined dashboard that allows small businesses to attach the invoices they want funded. Small-business owners can see the rebates the same day. These are advanced at rates of 85 percent to 90 percent of the invoices selected. BlueVine does not require much paperwork.
Online banking
Online banking also defines the future of finance in small business. It simplifies previous processes while enhancing the services of its brick-and-mortar sisters. Banking apps make it easy for small-business owners to keep tabs on their finances with one click. They can handle everything from transfers to deposits without visiting a branch. Many online banking platforms offer services geared specifically toward small businesses. They integrate with QuickBooks and other SMB financing software. Also, these online banks allow in-platform invoicing and payment collection. All these automated services save small businesses time and streamline the tools used.
Chime is an online bank account built to help users save money. Its Automated Savings program empowers entrepreneurs to automatically set aside money or round up their purchases, putting the “extra” into savings. Chime offers real-time transaction alerts and daily balance updates to keep them on top of their finances. And, they can seamlessly transfer funds between accounts, pay bills and issue checks. Unlike many big banks, it doesn’t charge monthly fees, overdraft fees or transfer fees. Also, users don’t have to maintain a minimum balance.
Small businesses aren’t earning funding attention at the same rate as their bigger competitors. To avoid the roadblocks of trying to compete with big businesses that have vast resources, small businesses should consider alternative financing.
In this series, Open Every Door, Entrepreneur staff writer Nina Zipkin shares her conversations with leaders about understanding what you have to offer, navigating the obstacles that will block your path, identifying opportunity and creating it for yourself and for others.
More than a decade ago, Gloria Calderón Kellett was a 25-year-old aspiring actor, but a spate of rejections from roles she didn't even want left her feeling dismayed.
“Every audition was for a part as a gangbanger's girlfriend or gangbanger's sister. That's it," Calderón Kellett recalled to Entrepreneur. "I wish that was me being hyperbolic."
But rather than give up on storytelling, Calderón Kellett switched gears and started writing. She wrote and directed plays and short films and worked her way through writer’s rooms, developing her craft on series as varied as How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, Devious Maids, Mixology and iZombie. In 2008, after three years as a co-producer on How I Met Your Mother, she started her own production company, Small Fish Studios.
Calderón Kellett hit a major career milestone last year when she stepped into the role of executive producer and co-showrunner of Netflix’s reboot of famed TV writer Norman Lear’s One Day at a Time. The show gave Calderón Kellett the opportunity to write characters inspired by her own Cuban-American family.
The series follows Penelope Alvarez, an army veteran, nurse and single mom played by Justina Machado, who is raising her two kids with help from her mom Lydia (EGOT legend Rita Moreno). The show has been lauded for its funny, thoughtful and nuanced take on issues ranging from mental health, immigration, LGBTQIA+ rights to supporting veterans after they come home. After an outpouring of support from fans and critics, it was renewed by Netflix for a third season.
Calderón Kellett shared that one of the most gratifying parts about creating the show have been the responses from people who feel seen on screen for the first time.
“It just tells people that they're not invisible and that they're seen and valued,” Calderón Kellett says. “People would reach out to me on Twitter and [talk about] seeing the [Cuban coffee brand] Bustelo. They said ‘when I saw the Bustelo in the kitchen I started crying and I didn't know why I was crying.’ It was all of these grown people telling me they didn't realize how much they were starved of this thing until they saw it. And that really touched me.”
Calderón Kellett recently joined forces with other creators including Shonda Rhimes, Lena Waithe and Jill Soloway to launch 50/50 by 2020. The initiative was developed to help ensure that the decision-makers and leaders in the entertainment industry are representative of diverse audiences.
That extends to the way she staffs her show. In a tweet from early March, Calderón Kellett shared that for season two, all 13 directors were women, people of color or both, the writing staff was 50 percent female, 50 percent people of color and 20 percent members of the LGBTQIA+ community and the guest cast was 61 percent women and 50 percent people of color and disabled people.
“What we do affects culture. What we can put out into the world goes into people's homes and you can see the change happen years later,” Calderón Kellett says. “Culture can affect people and then it affects policy and that policy can effect change. We feel like that type of work is really important. And it starts behind the scenes.”
Entrepreneur spoke with Calderón Kellett about creating opportunity and why something that feels like a weakness can actually be your biggest strength.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell me about a time that you needed to create an opportunity for yourself or others? How did you approach it?
My whole career has been creating an opportunity for myself. I was an actor and there was nothing. So I thought well, I'm going to write stuff that's reflective of who I am -- a little Latina who's funny, who doesn't have an accent and who's not super dark, I'm very fair -- and let's see what happens there. By writing for myself I basically created a writing career. We have to start creating our stories in whatever way that means for us. If you don't write, then find people. Learn how to produce.
The other thing that was important to me was doing my own outreach. I basically ran my own diversity program. I taught at [my alma mater] Loyola Marymount. I have been able to hire seven of my former students, all either women or people of color. I hire them because they're amazing. It's really rewarding to see that if you take the time to foster these young voices, then they shine.
What was at stake for you in this moment? Did this experience change how you think about leadership?
I've been fortunate because I've been in a lot of great situations [and writer’s rooms]. I hear horror stories from other women and I did not experience that. Is there sexism and misogyny? A thousand percent. For the most part I was in really great spaces that lacked people of color and women, but were at least decent guys. You get to see things run poorly and you get to see things run well and I think every writer in every room takes note of what they would do differently.
For me, I value the time of the staff and I really like my family. So we don't spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos and screwing around. We try to [organize our time] in an efficient manner so we can get everybody home so they can go live some funny and interesting stories and bring those in the next day to talk about.
I'm also so grateful that my first time as a leader was with Mike Royce. He really mentored me into showrunning. He has always supported my vision and really lifts me up. That's such an important thing too, the good men that I think get lost in the story.
What personal traits or strategies do you rely on to create opportunity for yourself and others?
I'm a very sensitive person, which I feel affects my writing in a positive way. I'm very empathetic. In the beginning of my career, I'd get very sensitive in the room, I'd have to go to the bathroom and then I cry it out in the bathroom, throw water on my face and go back into the room. For the longest time I thought that was a weakness. But then I realized, that's just who I am. I'm tough in other ways but I am sensitive and that can actually be a great thing because I really feel for other people when they're going through stuff.
Now, being the boss, I feel really sensitive about my writers in the room, making sure that they feel comfortable and there's boxes of Kleenex on our table so that if they're crying, it's with us. I think every one of my writers has cried in the room, just telling a personal story or getting cathartic about something that they're experiencing and sharing with us. Sensitivity is a trait that is actually one of my biggest strengths.
When you experience a setback, what do you do to keep going? How do you get unstuck?
I get real mad and then, I've got to be honest, I move on pretty quick. I don't sit with it very long because the sitting in it, it's like sitting in dirty bathwater. There's nothing that can be done in that space. You just got to drain the tub, get out and move forward. It sucks. Feel it. Get it out then move on so that you can make a change and fix it.
People who want to advocate for themselves don't know always know how. What are actionable steps they can take to make themselves heard? What steps do you take?
This is not just in Hollywood, you have to find your allies and people that you feel comfortable talking to. It's also trying to get to a space where you're able to confront people -- which is a really hard thing. I really try when I feel uncomfortable with a person to get okay with them really quickly. I've realized that when you confront someone and say, "Our chemistry is a little off. We have to work together. How can we do that?" That opens them to be emotionally open to you. I've always had positive results with it.
The days of women sitting in the workplace or people of color sitting in a workplace thinking they have to push through it by themselves -- I really hope those days are over. The only way that we're going to be able to truly advocate for ourselves is if we can do it verbally.
Has there been a counter-intuitive or surprising way you've opened doors for yourself?
The idea that if you build it they will come is fascinating. As a showrunner, I've gotten more acting work than when I had an agent and I was an actor. By creating this show, I have weirdly created a space where people do want to hire me as an actor. Which is funny because that was the intention 12 years ago.
Directing is also something I wanted to do for really long time. I've done a lot of theater directing. In [looking to support] 50/50 by 2020, we were trying to find more female directors that do multicam [for us] and I realized there was no Cuban woman that's done multicam, ever. I was talking to [director] Pam Fryman about it. She goes "I know somebody who’s amazing who's Cuban. It's you, Gloria." She really supported me and said "you can do this." I shadowed her and a few other people, and I did it and I loved it so much.
By me doing it, it opens the door for other people. I have to go in there and crush it because if I do then people will go, "oh, maybe we should give more people opportunities." You've got to be undeniable, because if you suck they're going to go, "oh well, we tried and they suck." If you're going to bet on anything you should bet on yourself.
Was there a blind spot that you had about leadership and opportunity you worked to change within yourself?
I was broken by the system for a while. If you're in enough rooms where you're told women are not funny or women are not as funny as men, you start to go ‘oh maybe I'm not.’ I remember I was finally in a room with another woman of color and they made a joke about us. They called us spic and span. We're both Latina. I started making jokes about it. I started speaking in an accent and being ridiculous when I was pitching. That's how I dealt with my discomfort.
At that time I really thought, I've got to work within this system and make these white guys not feel uncomfortable for calling me a racial slur. I look back on that and I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed because there was somebody else that was a lower level person that I should have stood up for. Thankfully, I've gotten to apologize to her and she wept in my arms and said, "What are you talking about? You were great." When you grow up in a broken system it's hard to break through. And now thankfully I don't let anything like that happen.
Jessica Abo sits down with branding expert Kathleen Griffith to share her progress after going through Griffith's boot camp.
1 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Over the last three episodes, I learned how to overcome fragmentation, how to develop a brand strategy and how to build a tactical marketing plan. In my final episode with the founder of Grayce & Co, I share where all of Kathleen Griffith's advice has directed me. Thank you for following along and doing these assignments with me. I hope Griffith has helped you with your business plans, too.
Entrepreneur Network is a premium video network providing entertainment, education and inspiration from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders. We provide expertise and opportunities to accelerate brand growth and effectively monetize video and audio content distributed across all digital platforms for the business genre.
EN is partnered with hundreds of top YouTube channels in the business vertical. Watch video from our network partners on demand on Roku, Apple TV and the Entrepreneur App available on iOS and Android devices.
Welcome to Part 2 of my blogging platform series. In Part 1, we went over some crucial factors when finding the right blogging platform. I believe when you have the right blogging interface, it’s just much easier to start your business and start building momentum. People often spend weeks designing their website and by the time they publish their 1st content, it’s been months. Along the way, they lose motivation, which pretty much destroys your business, but if all this can be compressed, then you won’t lose the initial motivation. The quicker you can get your blog set up, the faster you can start marketing and building momentum. With momentum comes greater motivation and a drive to keep pushing forward.
In Part 1, we looked at the following factors that matter when choosing the right blogging platform:
The backend interface
Theme selection
SEO interface
Today, I’ll be exploring another 3-4 important factors to consider when choosing the right blogging platform. These factors make it very easy for you to set up your blog and start building your business. Let’s get started.
Plug-in Selection
When choosing a blogging platform, it’s important you choose one with plug-in variety. A plug-in is an easy way to customize and tweak your website WITHOUT paying for a coder. For example, if I want to add social sharing button above and below my content, then I simply have to install a “social” plug-in from the backend of my blog. They have so many different ones to choose from, all bringing something unique to your blog. Currently, on my blog, I’m using the following just so you know what I can do with this feature:
Social share
WP Cache (speed up my website)
Decrease bounce rate
SEOPressor (LSI keyword research)
AutoTweet
Aweber integration
Google Analytics
Many more
All of the above were installed with the click of a mouse and are fully integrated into WordPress.
Expansion
When searching for the right blogging platform, it’s important you keep popularity and growth in mind. You want to use a blogging platform that will keep growing and offer new features, etc. You don’t want a blogging platform that becomes outdated because progress begins to slow down. The blogging platform is only as good as the people involved in development. If the platform NO longer offers security fixes, plug-ins, a community, etc., then it will eventually lose all the functions that made it popular in the first place.
When choosing a blogging platform, pay close attention to updates and the latest news surrounding the community. This way, you can find out what the plans are for the platform and how they will be improving their interface.
Price or Subscription
Some popular blogging platforms will charge you a one-time fee or monthly subscription to use them. This fee doesn’t matter as much to those who are making money through their blog, but for those starting out, it can pretty steep. When you are choosing a blogging platform, it might help to check what the monthly charge will be to use their CMS. However, keep in mind, from my experience, you have many FREE awesome blogging platforms that provide you a complete solution.
For you to find out if the blogging platform has a fee, you simply need to browse over to their website and check out their home page.
Final Thoughts,
I currently use WordPress for all my blogging needs because it provides me everything I need to jump start my business. Over the years, it’s grown in popularity and continues to allow for more advanced customizations. As a matter of fact, WordPress is offered for FREE by many hosting providers when you sign up using a one-click install mechanism. If I was going to suggest a blogging platform for your business requirements, I would suggest WordPress. I’ve had years of experience with it and it continues to provide me with everything I need.
An entrepreneur who used to talk to a photo of Virgin's CEO on her iPhone explains that, no, she wasn't crazy; she was getting real business help.
8 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When I tell people that Richard Branson played a key role in developing my business, they bombard me with questions: How did you meet him? What is he like in real life? Did you visit his private Caribbean island? You can imagine how bamboozled these same people are when I tell them that, to this day, I have never spoken to the "real" Richard Branson.
In fact, the huge influence he had on my business, and on my life in general, derived from a screensaver photo of him on my cellphone, which I consulted in times of need.
Now, before you question whether I am a victim of the stress entrepreneurship took on my mental health -- which, jokes aside, is a real, largely unaddressed problem for professionals today -- let me assure you: There was a method to my madness.
Specifically, whenever I was confronted by a challenge that at face value I couldn't tackle myself, I'd turn to a therepeutic method called visualization: I'd ask "Richard" for guidance. In doing so, I forced myself to think strategically about the root of my problem, and find ways to surpass the roadblock, using the resources available to me.
Here are four steps you too can use to harness the power of visualization in order to self-mentor:
1. Understand the value of visualization.
Back when I developed my "relationship" with Branson, I had a lot on my plate. I was recovering from a long bout of Lyme disease, had launched an events startup in New York and was trying to move back into the therapy profession.
I had many doubts, concerns and questions but felt that I didn’t have anyone to help me formulate my ideas and offer a guiding hand. Lacking the contacts to find a real mentor, I instead chose a person who was, and is, inspiring in all the right ways. Enter Richard Branson. Or at least a photo of him.
The self-mentoring I then embarked on uses a “hypnotherapy style” framework emphasizing inducing deep relaxation followed by visualization as outlined by Shakti Gawain in her book Creative Visualization. There is a concept in hypnotherapy that emphasizes using visualizations to find a “resource memory.” This is usually a memory from a time when you were able to feel the desired result -- that is, confidence. By linking that old memory to a current experience, you can act the same way you did in the memory.
So, while to the rest of the world I was simply speaking to a photo of Richard Branson on my cellphone screen, I was really using him to remind me of past times when I was able to succeed. I would then recall the emotions around that time and act accordingly. I would try to act the way I would if I actually had received advice from Richard: grateful, inquisitive, excited.
In my visualization, Richard would say to me, “Remember when you did this?” or "Remember when you accomplished that?" His photograph was a tool to remind me of the previous problems I had overcome, and the previous situations when I had faced similar challenges and come out the other side.
The method is about tricking your mind into thinking that what you are in need of is already there. And for this, Branson's face was a prompt to take action.
2. Choose the right mentor for you.
One of the benefits of self-mentoring is that you can choose literally anyone under the sun to help you, without even asking permission first.
However, it's important to choose the right mentor for you at that stage in your journey. This means someone with the right experience and character traits to solve the real problems you're struggling with at that moment. Back then, I was listening to a lot of amazing Gary Vaynerchuk podcasts, whose message is to stop feeling sorry for yourself, and push and hustle until you make it. While useful, however, these skills were not what I needed at the time.
What I did need was more practical day-to-day advice, such as where to look for a new office, how to organize my payroll, how to find more clients and how to make ends meet under financial pressure. As such, I looked for a mentor who embodied the characteristics I felt I most lacked: perseverance and the ability to make something out of nothing.
A great example of this blew up Buzzfeed back in 2016, when a young man in financial trouble revealed that he kept in his wallet a photo of Terry Crews -- the actor who played notoriously frugal father figure Julius on Everyone Hates Chris -- to help him make better spending decisions. Every time he went to pay for something, the photo would jolt him back to his mission, and make him think twice about the expenditure. He later found out that Crews had the same image printed on his wallet, too!
So, the photo move is adaptable to pretty much any problem you have. Want to be more confident as a female entrepreneur? Choose a strong female figure from the movies you idolized as a kid. Want to give up smoking? How about a photo of your mother, who hates cigarette smoke?
3. Use your mentor to formulate your ideas and think outside the box.
In my case, Richard wasn’t there to help me save cash or stop smoking -- he was there to help me take a step back and think more tactically about the options I had available.
Therapists ask open ended questions to encourage users to talk about their problems, to gain a little clarity on the root of their problems. In the same way, I found that being forced to condense my -- many -- problems into concise questions and well-thought-out answers forced me to break seemingly colossal problems into bite-sized pieces.
This allowed me to target small, actionable tasks one at a time and really look at the options I had available to me, through my network of contacts, family, friends, etc.
Questions like, “Richard, How can I find an affordable office space in Manhattan, when I have limited resources?” made me stop, take a breath and look into the deepest, darkest regions of my contacts lists. I’d think, Hey, I could call that guy from the meetup ... I know Carrie has an extra office. I could ask to share a space ..., etc.
If I got stumped, and Richard couldn’t come up with an answer, I'd realize I was dealing with something outside of my capabilities. Be it hiring an assistant or bringing on a professional accountant, recruiter or lawyer who could solve the problem at hand, I was forced to take the steps needed to rectify the situation.
The idea is, you're more resourceful than you think -- and if you try to answer open-ended questions as if they were being posed to you, you will be surprised at the answers you come up with.
4. Offer support and relief.
Having Richard available to me 24 hours a day offered great emotional support, too. When I felt fazed, exhausted or frustrated, I would ask myself, “Would Richard behave in this way?” More often than not, the smiling photo showed that the answer was "no," making me recognize my behavior and take a step back before I spiraled out of control.
Richard also offered me a dose of comic relief. As a serious businesswoman, I probably looked -- and felt-- a bit silly chatting away to a photo on my iPhone; certainly, I drew some strange looks on the subway. But the act of taking out my phone, saying “hi” to Richard and speaking to him as if he were a real call served its purpose, giving me a reason to smile when times were tough. My monlogues with my phone were a great conversation starter, too.
Eventually, as my business -- and my needs -- grew, I decided to bring my professional relationship with Richard to an end and look for the support of real live mentors here in New York, who had the contacts and experience I needed to push my company to the next level.
That said, my experience with Richard Branson was so valuable that when my husband and I attended a live book signing and Q&A session, and I had the chance to address my mentor face to face, I kept quiet. I felt that I had asked "Richard" so many questions over the years that I already had all the answers I needed.
However, the one thing I do regret is not standing up and thanking him, in person, for his help. So, thanks, Richard; and FYI, I’m always available for an invite to Necker Island.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media.
On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, Erik Fisher and Kim Reynolds explore Facebook ad improvements and changes with Amanda Bond, Facebook and Instagram data and privacy updates with Emeric Ernoult, Snapchat rolling out group video chat, and more breaking social media marketing news of the week!
Watch the Social Media Marketing Talk Show
If you’re new to the show, click on the green “Watch replay” button below and sign in or register to watch our latest episode from Friday, April 6, 2018. You can also listen to the show as an audio podcast, found on iTunes/Apple Podcast, Android, Google Play, Stitcher, and RSS.
For this week’s top stories, you’ll find timestamps below that allow you to fast-forward in the replay above.
Facebook Improves and Expands Ad Split Testing Capabilities: Facebook rolled out an update that allows split tests to be created easily in the Quick Creation flow. Previously, Facebook advertisers could only create split tests in Ads Manager’s Guided Creation workflow. According to Facebook, this update makes it easier for advertisers who prefer the Quick Creation flow to create and manage ads in bulk to also test ads against one another. Facebook also added split testing support for the engagement marketing objective; added a new reporting dashboard that shows standard KPIs such as CPM, CPC, and CTR for the ads in a split test; and added a way to duplicate a split test while maintaining existing split test settings. (4:30)
Facebook Cracks Down on Ad Targeting by Email Without Consent: Facebook plans to launch a new custom audiences certification tool that requires marketers to guarantee email addresses and any other data used for ad targeting were properly and rightfully obtained with the user’s consent. A spokesperson for Facebook said the platform will require advertisers and agencies representing them to pledge, “I certify that I have permission to use this data.” Facebook will also prevent sharing custom audience data across business accounts. (14:27)
Facebook Shuts Down Partner Categories for Ad Targeting and Drops Audience Reach Estimates for Custom Ads: The show revisited two topics that were previously covered and discussed them with our guest, Amanda Bond. Last week on the show, we discussed Facebook’s plans to shut down Partner Categories, which enables third-party data providers to offer ad targeting data to ad buyers. The company currently allows advertisers to target groups of people based on a mix of data such as offline purchasing activity collected by companies like Experian and Acxiom, user activity and profile data collected by Facebook, and a company’s own customer data. It will wind down the practice of using third-party data in its ad targeting “over the next six months.” (21:24)
We also discussed a technical issue with Facebook’s reach estimation for custom audiences that could “potentially allow misuse of the functionality.” The company notified brands and advertisers about this potential threat via email and stated it’s halting the ability to see reach estimates for all custom audiences across all of its interfaces until this issue can be resolved. Facebook will also limit how many custom audiences an advertiser can create during this time.
Exclusive: Facebook will no longer show audience reach estimates for Custom Audiences after vulnerability detected by @ginnymarvinhttps://t.co/8vP68D2MwT
Instagram Shuts Down Older Instagram API Platform and Limits Data Available to Developers: At the end of January, Instagram announced it will stop supporting the Instagram API platform over the next 2 years beginning on July 31, 2018. Due to recent updates to Facebook’s privacy and data security policies, these capabilities have been shut down effective immediately. Instagram also massively reduced the amount of data and the rate at which developers may pull this data from the Instagram API. The limit rate for Instagram’s API platform was previously 5,000 calls per hour. As of last Friday, this was noticeably reduced to 200 calls per hour. (31:32)
Facebook Limits App Developer Access to User Data: This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced some hard questions on how Facebook is protecting people’s information and outlined several initiatives currently launching to prevent abuse, protect personal data and privacy, improve security, and take down fake accounts. As part of these initiatives, Facebook announced that “over the coming months,” it will significantly limit developers’ access to data from its Events, Groups, and Pages APIs. (44:40)
The company is also cracking down on the use of the Facebook login and access to personal details such as a user’s political views, religious affiliations, relationship status, and other personal details in apps.
Facebook Rolls Out Bulk App Removal Option: Facebook introduced a new tool that allows users to delete apps and other online services associated with their Facebook accounts in bulk. It also offers the option to delete any posts those apps made to your profile with one click. Previously, the only way to remove apps was to do so one by one. The Next Web reports that this new tool appears to be available in the Settings menu under Apps on both Facebook’s mobile and desktop versions. However, Facebook hasn’t yet officially confirmed how widely this new feature has been rolled out. (47:21)
Snapchat Introduces Group Video Chat and Rolls Out Tagging to Stories: Snapchat introduced a new group video chat feature that allows up to 16 people to simultaneously conduct a video chat with each other. For larger chats, Snapchat now also offers group voice calls with up to 32 participants.
Snapchat also rolled out the ability to mention other people in Stories by simply typing “@” before their username. People who are tagged will be notified when they appear in their friends’ stories. TechCrunch reports that Snapchat began testing this feature in March and it’s currently rolling out to “users across the globe over the next few weeks.”
Facebook Introduces 360 Photos and HD-Quality Video to Messenger on Mobile: Facebook introduced the ability to send 360-degree photos and share HD-quality videos in Messenger. Support for 360-degree photos in Messenger is available globally with the latest versions of the Messenger app for iOS and Android. However, HD-quality video is currently only available in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, and the U.S.
Facebook Shares More Context Around Articles and Publishers Shared in the News Feed: Last October, Facebook began adding more information about select articles and publishers found in the news feed. This week, Facebook rolled out this feature to all users in the U.S. and added two new insights that “give people a quick snapshot of the other recent stories posted by the publisher” and which of your friends has shared a particular article. This tool provides Facebook users with “more context… [to help them] decide for themselves what to read, trust, and share” on Facebook.
YouTube Expands Advertisers’ Options With TrueView Ads: YouTube introduced a new way to buy TrueView ads that are optimized for reach. This new ad format, called TrueView for Reach, gives advertisers the option to build ads from 6 seconds up to 30 seconds long that can be skipped after 5 seconds and will run before or during videos.
Twitter and Periscope Add Timestamps for Videos: Twitter and Periscope launched a new feature called Timestamps that allows users to tweet a live video or replay and have it start from the exact moment they want to discuss. This update is rolling out today on Twitter for Android and iOS, Twitter.com, and Periscope.
Today we’re launching Timestamps, a new way to share the best parts of your broadcasts on Periscope and Twitter.
Facebook Adds Two New Animated Text Features and Ability to Disable All Animated Text: Facebook appears to have rolled out two new animated text effects. One activates an intricate “high five” for the abbreviation for best friends forever, BFF. The other releases stars and sparkles when you click the words “best wishes.” Facebook also gave users the ability to control “whether you and your friends see text colors and animation on [your] post.” This option essentially disables all animated text effects, which include other expressions such as congrats, rad, and more. These new features were discovered by Mike Stelzner and Ali Kelly.
Facebook Updates Page Cover Images With Live Video Broadcasts: When going live from a linked Facebook page, the cover image on the page appears to play the broadcast while it’s being recorded. Facebook hasn’t provided any details nor officially released information on this possible new feature, which was discovered in the wild by Julie Reily and Jen Cole from Depict Media.
Want to catch our next show live? Click here to subscribe or add our show to your calendar.
It could be the key to taking your business from humble startup to household name.
6 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Last year, according to a study by Marketing Hub, the term "influencer marketing" showed a 325 percent increase in searches per month, and more than 200 new platforms and influencer marketing-focused agencies joined the market. In the first quarter of 2017, influencer marketing was responsible for 28 percent of online customer-acquisition, and 67 percent of businesses said they planned to increase their influencer marketing budget over the next 12 months.
Every niche you can think of has influencers that direct those who follow them, which is likely part of the reason why startups with aggressive marketing campaigns are going from ground floor to nationally recognized seemingly overnight. But as straightforward as influencer marketing may appear, it can be a complex landscape to navigate, requiring a strategic plan and optimization to make it work.
How many different types of influencers are there?
As noted, there are influencers for every niche you can think of -- food, fashion and beauty, video games, fitness, business, finance, direct sales, couponing ... the list goes on and on. Within those niches, there are different types of influencers, like celebrities, news personalities, analysts, bloggers and even people who are considered thought leaders or "sensations" (think: YouTube personalities).
Just a few of the most followed influencers of 2018 include: Huda Kattan, a makeup artist and beauty blogger; Zach King, a social media magician; Tai Lopez; an online business self-help leader; Kayla Itsines, a fitness influencer and cofounder of The Bikini Body Training Company; and Deb Perelman, a self-taught home cook. For every niche, hobby, or quirk there's a slew of influencers already creating content around that subject.
What makes influencer marketing so important?
Thanks to the internet, it's easier than ever to get information out about your product. It's also easier to publish any information you please, even if it's not true. Consumers are well aware of the misinformation out there and wary of the content and claims they come across. They put less trust and stock in ads and even use ad blockers en masse, which has dampened the success of many marketing campaigns.
With influencer marketing, you can address all those issues in one. Influencers' followers trust them and the products they promote. When they help you market your products, you build trust with consumers and get your products in front of them regardless of the ad blockers they may have. In a Collective Bias survey, 30 percent of consumers out of 14,000 respondents reported that they were more likely to purchase a product promoted by a non-celebrity blogger, and almost 40 percent of Twitter users have reported that they've made a purchase because of a Tweet from an influencer.
You build trust quickly. Influencers' followers are there for a reason -- they view them as an authority in their field and trust what they have to say about the products they recommend. When you use influencer marketing, you build trust with your audience quickly through your influencer(s). In a survey commissioned by Olapic, 44 percent of female respondents reported that seeing the product in use helped them trust an influencer, and 41 percent of males reported that the influencer's expertise helped them build trust.
You increase brand awareness. Raising brand awareness can be a long-term project, but influencer marketing reaches further and happens more quickly. Anyone who reads your influencer's blogs or watches his or her videos will at least become familiar with your brand, if not purchase from you at one point or another. Influencers can help you build an army of brand enthusiasts (and repeat customers).
You target the right audience. Influencers are typically specialized; for example, Jaclyn Hill is a YouTube and social media influencer in the beauty space, but her content is focused on makeup rather than hair. Anna Wood is an influencer in the business development space, but she focuses on female empowerment. Influencer marketing allows you to narrow your target audience and reach its members effectively.
You boost your SEO. The point of SEO is to get quality, credible content about your brand on the web to boost your search rankings. With influencer marketing, not only will you appear in the content you generate, but you'll also see rankings from your influencer's content, boosting your SEO and getting more engagement, expanded reach and more unique, but credible, links.
You save money. Influencer marketing does come with a price tag, but it's usually surprisingly budget-friendly and offers a fantastic ROI - A 2015 Tomoson survey reported that businesses were making $6.50 for every $1 that they spent on influencer marketing at the time, but as influencer marketing has grown in popularity, the ROI is likely higher now in many cases. If you've got a small marketing budget, don't count influencer marketing out -- it could be the marketing strategy that brings you the best results.
Common influencer marketing mistakes to avoid
Despite its many benefits, influencer marketing is a complex landscape, and brands often make mistakes that cause them to have setbacks. Here are two of the most common influencer marketing mistakes to you should avoid:
Choosing quantity over quality. Some influencers have a lot more followers than others, but their content may not be the highest quality, or may not be the best fit for your brand. Instead of looking at the number of followers, examine their content and engagement to determine which influencer will give you high-quality results.
In fact, a 2017 HelloSociety study found that micro-influencers, or accounts with less than 30,000 followers, actually drive 60 percent more engagement. Audiences trust that when micro-influencers post content, they deeply care about it and have put time and effort into cultivating the right social post. Additionally, with smaller audiences micro-influencers can spark more personalized interactions, which can also drive the value of engagements up.
Choosing the wrong channels. Although every business should be on Facebook, Facebook may not be the best channel for a B2B business to implement influencer marketing. It's important to look at all the different channels available and find an influencer who actively uses the same platform your audience is using.
For example, if you're a blockchain-based startup looking to grow awareness among investors and the crypto community, building up an influencer community on LinkedIn or forums, like Reddit, will allow you to establish deeper ties to your niche audiences.
With consumers turning to influencers they know and trust to give them reliable information, influencer marketing has experienced a dramatic rise in popularity and will continue to be successful. That's why it's important for every business, especially startups, to take advantage of the power of influencer marketing -- it could be the key to taking your business from humble startup to household name.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Warren Buffett. Mark Cuban. Howard Schultz: Besides being among the richest men in the world, all are members of another rare club: successful CEOs who started out as salespeople.
The young Buffett sold securities for three years. Cuban was a sales rep who taught himself programming. And Schultz sold copiers at Xerox.
In the tech industry, just 8 percent of CEOs at the largest 100 U.S. firms have primary backgrounds in sales, and less than 30 percent have any sales experience at all, according to a 2017 study by the Korn Ferry Institute. The vast majority of people who ascend to CEO headed large divisions or were chief operating officers. In Silicon Valley and other tech hubs, engineering backgrounds also are common.
But, as someone who himself spent 12 years in sales before becoming a CEO in 2015, I understand why so few chief executives come from the sales ranks. Most people who build a career in sales simply love selling, and often lack a desire to move into management tracks that could lead to the corner office. I remember the sales colleague who arched his eyebrows when I first took a management position. "Why are you doing that?" he asked.
That kind of attitude is a shame because I think many salespeople have what it takes to be great CEOs. Many possess the same skills that are essential to leading a company: communications, strategic thinking, ambition, integrity, passion for the business and, last but not least, keen perception of customer needs.
As the Korn Ferry report put it: "While uncommon, technology CEOs who come up through sales bring with them valuable knowledge and expertise. Many of the traits that it takes to be a successful sales executive are also those that make for a successful tech CEO. Sales leaders that make the effort to broaden their backgrounds can distinguish themselves as prime CEO candidates."
You could have been a contender. You still could be.
I wish companies would do a better job identifying leadership potential within the sales force. I wish more salespeople would recognize and nurture their own capacity for higher cross-company roles.
And I haven't given up on those things happening: Here are five pieces of advice I would give to a sales specialist about how to hone his or her leadership abilities, to prepare to be a CEO contender:
1. Develop cross-organizational empathy.
Sales is intensely motivated by one primary driver: closing deals. But sales is hardly one-dimensional; though singular in focus, it requires a complex palette of skills.
The best sales teams also understand the importance of customer success, but their job goes beyond that. Any sales leader with CEO aspirations must step outside of that box and begin to empathize with and understand other parts of the business -- the developers, marketing, HR, etc. How does each work? How is each motivated to achieve success? How does each each align to meet broader company goals?
These are strategic questions a would-be CEO must learn to ask. He or she also must communicate effectively with many different audiences.
How do you get there? As a salesperson at a large tech company, I took on stretch assignments -- participating in a task force on competitive intelligence and joining a group that re-designed the company website. (The latter was a miserable experience, but I learned a lot!) Any opportunity that helps you learn about other parts of the business is a good one.
If you're working on a transition to CEO, you'd also be wise to find a mentor who is a CEO, ideally one who didn't come from a sales background. Find out how this person works, and worries about, the problems that need to be solved. You can learn a ton from these people, with the side benefit being that you'll expand your network.
2. Appreciate that hiring well is job No. 1.
When you're in sales, you hire for one type of role: people who can sell or can manage salespeople. But CEOs hire the most important functional leaders: the CMO, CFO, head of product development, etc.
A salesperson transitioning to CEO must recognize that building a great team is one of the most crucial aspects of the position. This again is why cross-organizational empathy is so important. You need a deep grasp of each department's mission and who the best people are to lead it.
"I have a technical degree as an engineer, but spent the first 20 years of my career driving revenue through sales and sales leadership roles," Chris Cook, president and CEO of Delphix, shared with me. "In 2006, when Wily Technology was acquired by CA, I became a general manager and had engineering, product management and marketing for the first time. Even during my time in sales, I was always close to the engineers and developers, and had an affinity to that part of the business.
Once he mastered those departments, Cook added, "I jumped in with both feet and absolutely loved the product side of the business." For ten years, he's focused on product and the people who build it, "to gain a broad perspective for all elements of a software company, and how the various piece parts fit together most effectively."
3. Sharpen your finance knowledge.
Strong comprehension of financial operations is de rigueur for a CEO. About 30 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs spent the first few years of their careers developing a strong foundation in finance, according to a study by consulting firm Heidrick & Struggles.
Because finance is a common experience for so many CEOs, a lack of this skill set could be a stumbling block. Salespeople with CEO aspirations should keep this in mind as they move to other corporate positions and assignments.
4. Recognize that "company culture" is more than a buzzword -- it matters.
Company culture has become more important than ever, and not just for the usual reasons that culture sets the company's values and identity.
Having a strong, positive culture is also often a differentiator in recruiting and retaining the best people in a competitive labor market, and in nourishing corporate reputations in the age of social media. Fostering a healthy culture in the sales organization as head of sales is one thing; doing it companywide is another. This is where salespeople need to think beyond quotas and numbers.
"Having directly led a sales force, I know first-hand there comes with it a unique culture that can't be found elsewhere. That sales spirit is an important piece in the overall corporate culture," Phillip Braithwaite, president and CEO of Hart InterCivic, told me. "When I stepped into the chief executive role in 2011, I was more connected to all facets of the company and saw for the first time how important it was to have a shared sense of purpose and identity that resonated across the entire organization."
5. Don't micromanage sales.
CEOs who come from sales have to hire a really good VP of sales and let that person do the job. It's so tempting to be a control freak in terms of the area you know best, but all that will do is distract you from the myriad other CEO responsibilities and burn out your sales leader.
So, you should re-train your brain and pay equal attention to all the parts of the business.
Derek Langone, CEO of XebiaLabs, echoed a similar sentiment, telling me, "As a sales leader, I was always interested in company success, but I measured it exclusively by sales results. As I matured, I realized how all the functional areas of the company contribute to, and are required for, overall success.
"However, as a company grows, the swim lanes between departments become more and more defined. As a CEO, I deal with that by using many of the same management approaches that allowed me to be an effective sales leader, but on a broader scale. For example, in many cases, I'm still the dot connector for the organization and the market, just as I was in sales, but my role is now much more visible and more representative of the entire company.
"There is certainly a learning curve, but I feel strongly that the skills learned as a sales leader are quite transferrable to the CEO function."
To salespeople who believe they have the right stuff for CEO, I say: You can make it happen. If you're interested in and are up for the challenge of being responsible for different parts of the business, it comes down to desire.
Can you do it? Are you motivated to do it? Is it the right fit?
If the answers are yes and you're willing to do the necessary groundwork, you can make the leap.
Disrupting a deep-rooted industry like mining requires adjusting your sales tactics and listening really, really well.
7 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Because well-established industries have been around for a long time, they generally have tried-and-true methodologies that yield proven results. Mining, for example, is such a time-tested industry; and it's been around as long as recorded history. So, why mess with something that isn’t broken?
In fact, an industry's willingness to adapt to new technology makes a difference. A recent study by Accenture discovered that going digital has helped improve mining operations by up to 47 percent, cutting costs and speeding up decision-making. These positive results from embracing tech have led 82 percent of mining executives to seek new digital solutions to achieve their business objectives.
So, what's the reason for holdups in implementing change? Most business owners are more than willing to discuss adopting new technologies, but they're reluctant to hit "go" on a project until they can be sure of its worth. Wise business owners want to make sure changes won't break their established infrastructure and that the pain of managing those changes deserves their time and energy.
For these resasons, the biggest obstacles to true disruption in traditional industries are changing the mindset of the people in them and convincing business owners to accept the value of the new product or service. Once they do greenlight something new, those leaders must then convince employees that the change is a good thing, particularly when what's involved is disruptive technology that could radically change or even eliminate positions.
Businesses trying to sell that disruptive technology to traditional industries might need to adjust, if not overhaul entirely, their sales tactics.
The need to listen and learn when you're selling emerging technology
To sell is to educate, but before you can teach people how you can help them, you must actively listen to their problems.
In historic industries, it's not a lack of technology preventing disruption -- it's fear of the unknown. Fear that employees won't be on board. Business owners not only have to worry about how to overhaul their equipment, but how to get their employees on board with the changes. Leaders of established industries aren't afraid of the technology, but rather about what it will do to their business.
Five ways to ease any potential misgivings of heavy-industry business leaders
1. Don't try to be the expert in the industry; be the expert in your field. You can't walk up to these owners and start talking about the wonders of your product. You're the least knowledgeable person in the room in terms of understanding his or her industry.
So, recognize that fact and use it to your advantage. Get to know leaders' pain points. Hire experts to educate you on how the industry works and learn from them. You'll pick up on ways your products or services can make a difference in the targeted business.
I gain the respect of the mining engineers and executives I meet with by talking about how my software ties into their industry; I strive to be seen as someone who might actually be able to solve their problem. My not being a part of their industry doesn't give them pause once I can show that I'm an expert in my own.
2. Show industry leaders that you know and agree they can't be replaced. Time-honored, heavy industries are giants. Large-scale manufacturers, for example, employed 12.5 million people as of December 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). With equipment that fills entire floors and plants that are the size of small cities, these industries' sheer size along makes them imposing and intimidating.
But beyond physical presence, these industries -- mining, construction, manufacturing -- are truly irreplaceable. How they work may evolve, but the industries themselves will never go away. According to the same BLS data, they're actually thriving -- 196,000 manufacturing jobs were added in 2017.
Scare tactics won’t work. Time-tested industry leaders know their jobs won't suddenly become obsolete if they don't implement your technology. Rather, show them you understand and appreciate the value they bring to their communities.
3. Don't just sell -- prove that you care. If you go into any meeting with the attitude that you're the only one able to solve your prospects' problem, you might as well turn back around. Instead, show them why you can do it: because you care.
Ask about the business. How do they operate on a daily basis? What issues do they always seem to face? Take the time to understand a traditional industry's needs before you pitch your solution. Given the natural skepticism of leaders who have been doing things one way for a long time, your success or failure will come down to the relationships you build.
JetBlue is one company that doesn't miss an opportunity to create strong relationships with customers. When a customer tweeted the company asking for clarification about a fee policy, JetBlue not only immediately responded, but also had a local representative study this man's social media photo, then walk through the airport until he could be found for a follow-up conversation.
Taking the time to get to know your potential customers doesn't just help you make the sale. It also helps you understand how the industry is changing and identify new ways to target other prospects. Most importantly, you just may leave a lasting and positive impression.
I even tested this idea. My team and I organized a field demo of 50 individuals and talked to each one about our team and the way we work. The one thing we took away was that, across the board, these people were looking for someone to show genuine interest in their businesses, not simply push them toward a sale.
So forget being cool or offering anything flashy. Just take the time to get to know your customers.
5. Find and connect with an advocate. Advocates are your secret weapon when pitching to well-established industries. Instead of focusing on your technology or trying to build credibility, advocates can provide testimonials about how your product or service has improved their business.
Early on, I worked with several advisors and professors who were a part of the mining community. They helped me break into the industry and find a partner who introduced my company to many of its own customers. By working with this advocate, I was able to build our credibility before giving the first pitch.
Ultimately, every industry wants to be more efficient. Well-rooted, conventional industries, in particular, are always looking for ways to make what they do easier and safer.
That's why, no matter how flashy or impressive your presentation may be, leaders won't care if they feel that you don't "get" their needs. To successfully partner with them, you have to be able to get into their world and realize that they know what they need far better than anyone else -- including you.
