The Financial Planning Association (of which I’m a member) are currently promoting the difference between Certified Financial Planners and the rest, so that consumers are better informed when seeking out financial planning services.  I fully support this initiative.  If you are interested, the details can be found here.

Download our Free ebook – SMSF – Australia’s most popular way to save for retirement.  Click on the green “Learn more about SMSF” on the right of this page.

Guidance Financial Services – specialist Financial Planning advice for the self employed and those running a business.

Entries are currently being called for this years BRW Fast 100.  This is a great PR opportunity for growing businesses.  Our clients Lotic have been a past winner of this competition.

For details, go to www.brw.com.au/fast100

An excellent post from Seth Godin here.

We all need business plans, but I do find that at times they are created just to tick the box that it’s done.  I’ve personally found Action Plan’s more useful, but if you have to present to a bank or investors, they wont cut it.

I don’t know about you, but our household is being bombarded with telemarketing calls at the moment trying to sell us insulation.  We are getting up to 4 calls in a single night.  As immensely annoying as these calls are, surely the fact that they continue suggests that the businesses responsible must get sufficient results to justify the time/expense.

None the less, telemarketing is not how I would choose to promote my business.  So what other prospecting options are available to Australian businesses?

A useful article can be found here http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/13401252-1.html

The data is US based but it offers some useful insights.  I found it interesting that cold calling was almost twice as successful to businesses as it was to households.  I wonder if that is because businesses make more purchasing decisions, or perhaps are more time poor.

Not surprisingly the personal referral was the most successful method of gaining new customers, but it was interesting that when it was up to the customer to contact the supplier, the results dropped off, even though a personal referral was made.

So given referals are the most successful, here is a great article by Wendy Berry – 7 Tips for Effortless Prospecting.  Her referal book is a great idea, as much as anything just to keep the issue of asking for referrals front of mind.

Have you come accross any great prospecting tips?  Please share via the comments.

And don’t forget, Guidance Financial Services specialises in the advice needs of business owners and the self employed, so if you need any help with Key Person insurance, Self Managed Super, Income Protection, Business Expense  insurance, or any other wealth creation or protection item, give us a call on 03 9870 6544 or email. Remember, appointments can be held via Skype or phone, so we can help you wherever you are in Australia.

Winning awards is one of the best PR tools around.  BRW are now calling for entries for their Fast Starters edition to be published in April.  Details can be found here.

By Jamie Cheng

‘A guide to effective communication’ could be another title for Dan and Chip Heath’s book Made to Stick. It is simply brilliant at explaining the methodology behind effective communication.

One of my favourite examples in the book is a juxtaposition of two antismoking ads. An ad from the Truth campaign featured below, while the response by youth-smoking prevention was “Think. Don’t Smoke.”

‘When the survey asked kids whether they were likely to smoke a cigarette during the next year, those who were exposed to the Truth campaign were 66 percent less likely to smoke. Those who were exposed to "Think. Don’t Smoke" were 36 percent more likely to smoke! Tobacco execs must have taken the news quite hard.’

Made to Stick is more than an effective communication guide though. It is a great guide to running your business with a clear intention that prevents others from misinterpreting the direction of the business.

Employees and customers alike must be able to know what to expect from a business. The low-fare focus by Southwest Airlines is a perfect example in the book, which communicates how employees should act without constant guidance and what customers should expect.

jamie.k.cheng@gmail.com

You would be hard pressed not to have seen one of Seth Godin’s books.  His blog is equally insightful.  Here is an example.  Seth posts most days, usually just a few paragraphs, occasionally a full page.  It is a good one to get the RSS feed as the topics are short and to the point.

I haven’t read all of his books, but Purple Cow was certainly one I found interesting.

A business doesn’t exist without customers.  And gaining customers requires a marketing effort.  Often today, that involves a web site.  The problem is their are millions upon millions of web sites.  How does your target client find yours?  Well the answer (in Australia especially) is that they look up Google.

So how can you help Google find your page and have it come up when a target clients is looking for your services?  Well there is a whole industry built up around Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  The attached article gives the best insight I have thus far come across as to how this all works.  Within it, it also has a link to a more in depth article if you have  the interest and time.

http://blog.dinkuminteractive.com/search-engine-ranking-factors-what-really-matters/

Please comment (click on the above headline), we’d love to hear your feedback.