CCPA

By Laura Sicola, PhD, Sicola Consulting Group

In the midst of Entrepreneurship Week here in Philadelphia, on April 23, 2009 the CCPA very generously held a half-day workshop entitled “Marketing for Tough Times: Strategies for Future Growth” at the Radisson Warwick Hotel. All three key presenters (CCPA members themselves) had valuable insights, suggestions and strategies to offer and I, for one, am very glad to have attended. Allow me to share a few highlights:

First off, Rick Simmons (President, Dinkum Interactive) addressed the increasingly hot topic of social media. Rick demystified a lot of the terms and purposes of social media marketing – e.g. blogs, Twitter, etc. – as it differs from other more traditional forms of communication, and very fairly offered suggestions for how to tailor a marketing plan to meet any budget, even a virtually non-existent one! A key point for me was the sobering realization that, as Rick said, online, the consumer is “in charge,” and the best we can aim for is to be visible. Then, once you’ve got their attention and they have clicked over to your website, you have a paltry two seconds to convince them to stay there and read more or click other links, otherwise they back out and try somewhere else that seems like it might be more immediately relevant to their needs. There’s a reason for SEO (search engine optimization) if I ever heard one!

Second, Steve Bauer (Co-founder, The Three Marketeers; Founder & Instructor, The Referral Academy) clarified the nature of referral relationships and how to position yourself to make the most of them, no matter what your role – buyer, seller or referrer. Ultimately, as Steve put it, referrers accelerate the process of finding the “fit” between the buyer and seller. After all, who wants to waste time and resources with lots of trial and error? Thus, it’s important to know enough about both parties to give a good referral that will fit the needs and values of both, thereby strengthening your own reputation and the three-way relationship. And of course, we all want to get referrals from others as well, so it was good to be reminded that we need to carefully consider the ideal referral profile, i.e. not only the market in general but the specific type of people in that market with whom we want to interact, e.g. an end user vs. company decision-maker. Then, the question becomes what you do with a referral once you have the contact information; having a clear system for follow-up builds credibility and trust for you as seller or referrer alike, and that’s where everything begins.

Finally, Bill Ringle (Founder, MyBusinessGym.com) offered a condensed workshop, Developing New Business: When the Economy won’t Co-operate. The overriding theme to Bill’s piece was “the universe rewards action,” which he professed and behaviorally reinforced throughout the session. Bill brought a variety of worksheets and handouts from his Business Gym, some of which we did there and then, and others that were for later independent use, ranging from Likert-style scale ranked concepts to open ended questions, with short term and long term analysis. In the end, all of the take-aways were very practical and thought-provoking. I left with lists of concrete issues to address and next steps to take, specifically relating to my own business.

Overall, this CCPA workshop not only gave me a clearer picture of where my business is, and in what ways I need to continue to clarify my vision, but it left a great impression regarding the caliber of professionals we have among us – as demonstrated by the quality of the presentations as well as the discussions among the participants! I look forward to the next CCPA opportunity of this sort, and whole-heartedly encourage everyone else to attend as well. Trust me – you’ll be glad you did!

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