For more information on Goal Setting Tools, send Roger and email at roger@idahobusinesscoach.com

For private or teleseminar trainings, send an email to info@idahobusinesscoach.com

Schedule a 30 minute complimentary call with Roger to discuss your  plans, visit this site and pick a time, slots are limited:  https://my.timedriver.com/67LS1

Give your Business a Free Health Check here:  Health Check
For Fun, pick your top 5 Business Challenges:  Challenges

Time Management is number 3 on the list of “14 Most Common Business Owner Frustrations and How to Fix Them.”  Sit back and enjoy the next forty minutes of how to get your time back into  control.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlYASPFt5tI

For private or teleseminar trainings, send an email to info@idahobusinesscoach.com

Schedule a 30 minute complimentary call with Roger to discuss your  plans, visit this site and pick a time, slots are limited:  https://my.timedriver.com/67LS1

Give your Business a Free Health Check here:  Health Check
For Fun, pick your top 5 Business Challenges:  Challenges

If you would like to achieve similar results for your company, please take this quick business Health Check and Roger will contact you for a no obligation initial consultation.

To visit Nimbus360’s web page at http://www.Nimbus360.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDdpL22aHc

Tune in to hear why business is booming for Brad and the ActionCOACH team and their clients and make sure to attend this event to see how your business can be booming, too.  Register at:  http://www.businessisboomingtour.com and enter code RAH001

See a sample of the Business is Booming tour here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQPyN5F9Cgc

Dr. Jeremai Hafer from Purpose Driven Chiropractic - Mentoring Client since Jun 09  

Aaron Wright from Steelhead Construction – Mentoring client since Jan 2010  

Clint Paskewitz from Post Insurance - Group Coaching client since Jan 2010  

Each talk about where their mindset and their business was before starting with ActionCoach’s Roger Hawk, what they have done in their businesses and where their next initiatives will take them.  Don’t miss this fast paced show.  

Discover the potential in your business by taking this online business health check.  

For private or teleseminar trainings, send an email to info@idahobusinesscoach.com  

  To schedule a 30 minute complimentary call with Roger to discuss your  plans, visit this site and pick a time, slots are limited:  https://my.timedriver.com/67LS1         

    Give your Business a Free Health Check here:  Health Check     
    For Fun, pick your top 5 Business Challenges:  Challenges                       

Hawk's Eye on Business

Last night I had an interesting discussion with my MasterMind Group where the topic for one member was on direct mail marketing and how to make it effective.  There are a number of areas that need to be addressed when considering a direct mail marketing campaign.   

Here are the items that need to be addressed:  

1. Target Market:  Before you write your sales letter, you must first understand specifically who you are writing the letter to.  Do not scrimp on this issue.  The more specific the target market the better the mail piece can relate to that market.  If your target is too broad, your mail piece will be too general and when your market reads the letter, it will not hit any hot buttons or the hot buttons will not appeal as strongly to the reader, giving them no reason to take action on your mail piece.
2. Write an effective Marketing Piece:  I use the IEEO method taught to me by one of my coaches for Writing Ads, Flyers and Emails that Sell.  The acronym stands for Interrupt, Engage, Educate and Offer.  I have a complete module on my products page that explains how to construct effective print marketing pieces where I provide you with all the tools to construct your effective piece using both IEEO and the AIDA methods.  AIDA is Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. 
3. When to mail the letter and how many:  When to mail your marketing piece will depend on how long it takes your postal service to deliver the piece.  More important than when to mail the piece is when you want it to arrive at the target’s desk.  The best results are when the piece hits the target market’s desk on Tuesday or Wednesday.  This is because on Monday’s the target’s are usually putting out fires that sprung up on the weekend.  Thursday’s don’t give you enough time to follow up the mail piece before the weekend.  Friday’s are about preparing for the weekend for your targets. 
4. Following up the mail piece:  Studies show that mail pieces get between .5% to 2% response rates.  So for every 200 mail pieces, you can expect 1 to 4 responses from it.  By following up the mail piece with a phone call, you can increase those responses by 200-300%.  So now you can have between 2 to 12 responses to your mail piece.  This is because those people who thought your mail piece carried some merit but got side tracked can be brought back to the topic when you call.  Other’s may not have understood what you wrote or may not have been able to understand the benefits to them of your offer.  Therefore, never mail more pieces out than what you can follow up on with a phone call before the weekend.
5. Test and Measure Everything:  Test small samples of different headlines, offers, and benefits in your mail piece and record the results.  Keep track of demographics, responses, etc.  When you find a mail piece that works in a specific demographic then you can blow it up into a larger campaign.  One of the single biggest mistakes is that a business will mail 5,000 pieces out and get not one response and then complain about how direct mail doesn’t work.  No follow up, no testing to find a piece that worked, no clue about what they are doing.  If you are going to throw money away doing this type of marketing I have an address for you to send your check to, mine.  Sending me your money will have the same effect as not testing and measuring.

Things to consider for your mail piece are:  

1. Be specific with the benefits of your offer to your target.  Too many mail pieces are heavy on features of the business, the service or the product and not on what the benefit is to the customer.  Don’t make this mistake as it will be the most costly mistake in direct mail you will ever make.
2. Include some item that makes the letter stand out to your target.  If you are a CPA, put a couple of $$$ sign confetti in the letter, or if you are a landscaper include a couple of magic bean seeds in the letter.  The reason you want to do this is so that when you call, you can say “I’m calling about a letter I sent you (today or yesterday), the one with the magic bean seeds in it.  Do you remember receiving that letter?”  Now the conversation is started.
3. Sell the next step harder than the end result.  In your mail piece, be very clear what result you want out of the letter.  For instance, a consumer can not buy a washing machine as a result of your mail piece.  They have to come to the store.  Some people can buy directly off of a mail piece but you probably have to have a trust relationship built if your product is a high dollar item.  In this case, you might want them to take a smaller step in your sales process by downloading a money magnet from your website.  Money Magnets are low risk items that potential customers can download from your website to get introduced to you, your service or product.  For more information on money magnets, visit my products page.
4. Ensure that your marketing pieces are always promoting your Unique Selling Proposition  (USP).  By promoting what makes you unique, you take your competitors out of the equation.  This allows you to charge a premium for your service or product as opposed to constantly cutting your margins and competing on price.

  To schedule a 30 minute complimentary call with Roger to discuss your  plans, visit this site and pick a time, slots are limited:  https://my.timedriver.com/67LS1      

Other resources are:
Growth Club
How Healthy is Your Business – Business Health Check
Cash Flow Pamphlet
14 Most Common Business Owner Frustrations & How to Fix Them.
8 Biggest Sales Mistakes Small Business’ Make and How to Fix Them      

Roger Hawk Business Coach

       Roger Hawk is the host of “Hawk’s Eye On Business: KBOI News Talk AM670” and has been coaching, teaching & consulting Businesses for over 18 years. He’s been seen in Who’s Who, Virginia Tech’s Scholar Library, Eagle informer and various social media forums. He serves on Eagle’s transportation committee, and has created numerous support tools to help Business Owners become financially successful.        

    Give your Business a Free Health Check here:  Health Check     
    For Fun, pick your top 5 Business Challenges:  Challenges                     

 _________________________________________________________________      
 Material on this web site is copyright © Roger Hawk and R J Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved

Hawk's Eye On Business

    Yesterday we  held a social media basics training course for 25 like minded business owners and senior sales staff here in Boise, Idaho at a restaurant called the Sockeye Grill.  The event was sponsored by Keybank and the training was conducted by Craig Jamieson of NetWorks Boise!  The Lunch and Learn format was a popular schedule for my local area and may work well in your area, too.  The number one concern that came out of the training was the time needed to keep up with the big 3, Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.

     To understand what time we should be investing into social media for our businesses, we first have to understand:

1. Social media is a tactic and not the complete marketing plan. 
2. What do we want to accomplish with our social media tactics (Be Specific)
3. How and where does social media fit into our sales flow chart
4. Which social medias are aligned with the client base I want to do business with
5. How much time I am going to invest in social media each day/week/month
6. How you plan to convert the new social media contact into an engaged conversation, preferrably face to face but if distance is an issue, via a telephone conversation, etc.

    Answers to the above questions will get you started down the road of becoming a social media guru in your industry and with so many industries not having a comprehensive plan for this powerful tool, you will find yourself swimming in very fruitful waters.

   Thank you to all my new social media friends that I met yesterday at my Lunch and Learn.  To sign up for my next lunch and learn visit my Lunch and Learn website often.  They are held the second Thursday of every month (except for this month where we had to push it back a week).

   To schedule a 30 minute complimentary call with Roger to discuss your  plans, visit this site and pick a time, slots are limited:  https://my.timedriver.com/67LS1    

Other resources to this issue are:
Growth Club
How Healthy is Your Business – Business Health Check
Cash Flow Pamphlet
14 Most Common Business Owner Frustrations & How to Fix Them.
8 Biggest Sales Mistakes Small Business’ Make and How to Fix Them    

Hawk's Eye On Business

We’ve all heard the saying before, ”Plan your work, work your plan”, but what does that mean?  What plan are strategist talking about?  A marketing plan?  An organizational plan?  A product delivery system?  Are they talking about short term plans (tactical plans) or long term plans (strategic plans)?     

    The short answer is yes to all of the above and more.  As a coach, I have my clients set aside one full day each quarter to work solely on their business and review, research and document exactly what it is they want to accomplish in their business over the next 90 days.  There’s a number of benifits that come from this day, such as:    

1. Focus – Knowing what they want to accomplish over the next 90 days and setting their Reticular Activating System (RAS) to recognize the opportunities as they come along over the next 90 days allows them to quickly accomplish goals previously thought unattainable in the time frame given.
2. Clarity – By taking the time to consider areas of the business such as people, products, finances, time management, systems, etc. owners are able to choose which areas to address over the next quarter and execute plans around those priorities selected during the planning day.
3. Priorities – Similar to number two above, the owner can quickly prioritize the areas of the business that needs attention this quarter.
4. Knowledge – Setting out what training, education and/or skills are needed to affect the areas of the business that have been prioritized allows the owner to develop not only themselves, but also the entire team with logical skills development plans.

    Now that the priorities have been thought about, discussed and documented, we now have a rule to judge ourselves by.  At the end of the quarter we can reflect on the activities and accomplishments and determine if we’ve actually moved our “business” forward or if we have merely kept busy in our “busy-ness.”     

     March 26, is our next “GrowthCLUB” where numerous like minded business owners will gather locally in a large meeting room to bounce ideas off each other, consider, reflect and strategize their next 90 day plans and take action on their business.  If you would like to get involved in this or a similar power packed day in your area, send me an email to:  roger@IdahoBusinessCoach.com.     

   To schedule a 30 minute complimentary call with Roger to discuss your  plans, visit this site and pick a time, slots are limited:  https://my.timedriver.com/67LS1      

Other resources to this issue are:
Growth Club
How Healthy is Your Business – Business Health Check
Cash Flow Pamphlet
14 Most Common Business Owner Frustrations & How to Fix Them.
8 Biggest Sales Mistakes Small Business’ Make and How to Fix Them      

Roger Hawk Business Coach

       Roger Hawk is the host of “Hawk’s Eye On Business: KBOI News Talk AM670” and has been coaching, teaching & consulting Businesses for over 18 years. He’s been seen in Who’s Who, Virginia Tech’s Scholar Library, Eagle informer and various social media forums. He serves on Eagle’s transportation committee, and has created numerous support tools to help Business Owners become financially successful.        

    Give your Business a Free Health Check here:  Health Check     
    For Fun, pick your top 5 Business Challenges:  Challenges                     

Hawk’s Eye On Business

Last week I had a couple of seminars with two strategic alliances, Martha Sandifer of Martha Sandifer CPA, and Corey Smith of Tribute Media.  One of the outcomes from those seminars was that all too often, businesses employ marketing tactics without having a marketing plan.  For instance, social media is a great way to market your business but it is a tactic that needs to fit into a broader plan.  

• Print media ads
• Direct Mail campaigns
• Create Money Magnets from your Website
• Formal Referral Systems
• Strategic Alliances
• Radio
• Television
• Billboards/Posters
• Email Blasts to approved lists
• Websites and web ads
• Telemarketing/Cold Calling
• Seminars and workshops
• Leads groups

This is a very short list to get you thinking.  At ActionCOACH, we’ve developed 73 strategies to help businesses market their products.  Not all strategies work in all business types, however.  The trick is to pick a strategy that will work in your industry/business and stick to it until you’ve mastered that strategy before you move on to the next strategy.  Additionally, you need to automate the strategy to its fullest extent so that you are sure to continue working the strategy as you move to the next one.  Finally, map the strategy to a default calendar so that you or your staff is responsible for seeing the strategy carried out on a consistent basis.  In this way, you will be sure to always have a number of your strategies feeding you a steady stream of leads.  

   To schedule a 30 minute complimentary call with Roger to discuss your Marketing plan, visit this site and pick a time, slots are limited:  https://my.timedriver.com/67LS1           

Other resources to this issue are:
Managing your Cash Flow
How Healthy is Your Business – Business Health Check
Business Calculators
Cash Flow Pamphlet
14 Most Common Business Owner Frustrations & How to Fix Them.
8 Biggest Sales Mistakes Small Business’ Make and How to Fix Them  

Roger Hawk Business Coach

     Roger Hawk is the host of “Hawk’s Eye On Business: KBOI News Talk AM670” and has been coaching, teaching & consulting Businesses for over 18 years. He’s been seen in Who’s Who, Virginia Tech’s Scholar Library, Eagle informer and various social media forums. He serves on Eagle’s transportation committee, and has created numerous support tools to help Business Owners become financially successful.    

    Give your Business a Free Health Check here:  Health Check     
    For Fun, pick your top 5 Business Challenges:  Challenges