Frank Speaking Live

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Brilliant Berlin PLUS South Africa win the Rugby World Cup

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Thanks to everyone who helped me to get my book ‘Walking with Tigers’ to number 5 for best sellers and number 2 for movers and shakers on Amazon. In the sales column I will share the sales & marketing strategies I used to get there.

As you know one of the favourite parts of my work is the International travel. I recently spoke at the Entrepreneurs University for the second year running and this time it was in Berlin. I love presenting to this group of young, enthusiastic and talented people from all over the world who set and achieve massive goals and are inspirational to be around. It is also a great opportunity for me to network and as a result this has produced speaking bookings in Singapore, USA and Dubai.

It was my first time in Berlin and I fell in love with the city and its people. Our hotel was right in the middle of the ‘no go zone’ and I could see remnants of the Berlin wall from my room. It was fascinating to visit all the places I have read about and see how this city is now once again dynamic and thriving after breaking down the walls and welcoming in East Berlin.

I heard many moving stories of families that were split up and who after many years came together again. I visited Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Memorial and was even treated to supper at the house of one of the EO members. This house was located in the old East Berlin and belonged to a KGB officer in days past.

The highlight of the event was the black tie dinner at the Olympic Stadium. Tables were laid out in the middle of the stadium and contingents from each country entered the stadium with their flag and national anthem playing, just the same as the Olympic athletes would have. The Germans were impeccable hosts and I will definitely be visiting this wonderful city again.
After a quick engagement in Turkey my next trip was back to Asia for two weeks in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. I had one day off in Singapore, so managed to fit in 7 marketing appointments and set up my next trip in January 2008.
Take a look at the Berlin photographs.

My wife Candice then dragged me off for a two week vacation at our place in Spain where we proudly watched the South African Rugby team win the World cup again. Most of our neighbours in Spain are British and with the final being against England I took a lot of ribbing before the game, but strutted around proudly in my SA rugby t-shirt the next day.

Although we have been living in London for the last 14 years and I support England whenever any of their sports teams play, my heart is still in South Africa whenever any of their teams play and Candice and I are their most ardent supporters.
In January I will be in Asia again and running 2 masterclasses:
Multiple Sources of Income - how to make money while you sleep.

Sales and Marketing Skills for Speakers and Trainers - how to get engagements. Please email me at frank@frankfurness.com if you are interested and I will send you the full details.
With each newsletter, you will now be receiving complimentary bonuses. This issue includes, 'Words and Phrases that sell' and 'How to Create your own video product'. Download your bonuses here.

Also, please take a look at this months product review. It is a great piece of
inexpensive software that will put video on your website with ease.

Take a look at 'Just for Laughs' a new humorous section I will be putting into each edition.

Please visit http://w ww.frankfurnessresources.com where I have updated and added many new resources.

How to get your book in the top 10 of Amazon by Frank Furness


As you know I am huge believer in product and my own product range now has 32 products with over 100 CDs and DVDs. Now a new bug has bitten - the book bug. Having seen the success of ‘Walking with Tigers’, I have now rewritten my self- published book ‘How to find New Clients and Business’. It will published at the end of November (a great Christmas Gift), but my biggest concentration will be selling it as an EBook directly and through affiliates.


I am negotiating my next published book and will also be self publishing three more books next year, one on sales, one on how to get hired and get that job, and another on how to recruit and manage a dynamic sales team.


Having sold thousands of my self published book ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’, it was a challenge with my new published book as most of the marketing and PR was to be done by the publishers. I decided that I had to do a lot myself and if I could get a high ranking on Amazon, most bookshops would take notice, so here are the strategies I used and the mistakes I learned from:


1 – In the pre published form I had my publishers send out a copy of the manuscript to top business leaders and people I respected (I gave them the list to send it to). Many of those replied and gave some great comments that I could use on the cover. Most noted was a personal letter from Raymond Ackerman, the founder of Pick and Pay in South Africa and one of the most successful businesspeople in the world. I was thrilled that he had taken the time to read the book and write back and even more so when he sent me a personal email after he received his copy of the book.
His testimonial reads: ‘I really enjoyed reading this book, as it reminded me so much of things that I have tried to do in my life and the way I live. His story is put in such an excellent way, with huge empathy and enthusiasm….I think all people who want to become ‘Tigers’ could learn so much from Frank, and the light-hearted yet in-depth thinking he has put in this book. ‘Raymond Ackerman, founder of Pick ‘n Pay Stores.’


2 – I asked my publishers to print me 1000 copies of the book cover. On the back there was some excellent sales copy and a pre order form. I handed these out wherever I presented.


3 – I planned a mass buying opportunity on Amazon on the launch date. Using internet marketing techniques, I purchased some resale rights products and mailed everyone on my newsletter list informing them that if they bought the book from Amazon on the 29th September, they would be directed to another site where they could download $500 worth of products as a gift for buying the book. Everything was set up beforehand by me using auto responders and it all went smoothly. I was actually flying from Hong Kong to Malaysia that day and the automation process worked a treat.


4 – Before the launch I also contacted a number of my friends who also have large subscription lists and many of them promoted the bonuses to their subscribers.


5 – I created 2 videos with the cover as a background and uploaded them to YouTube also offering the bonus package to anyone who bought from Amazon on the 29th. Take a look at
http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/tigerpromo

6 – I wrote 3 articles promoting the book and the bonuses and included a section of the book as a preview. I then used some great software
http://www.articlesubmittingsoftware.com to submit it to 163 article directories on the web.

7 – I wrote another article and put it on my Blog – see
http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/tigerblog and received a number of comments immediately. I also ‘pinged’ the blog so that it would spread to blog directories all over the internet.

8 – I met with the South African distributors – Penguin Books - on my last trip to SA in June and again in London last month. Their publicity department has done an amazing job and lined up TV, radio and book signings for my trip to South Africa later this month.


9 – I met with the Asian distributors - Pansing – on my trip to Singapore. They will be organizing promotions when I am there in January. I have done the same for my trip to Australia in February and the USA in March.


10 – I an engaging the services of a well known publicist in the United Kingdom.


Mistakes:
1 – Launching on a Saturday. My final reminder email was sent on the Saturday morning and many of the emails were only opened on the Monday, thereby missing the Saturday launch. I am sure if I had organized this for a weekday I could have reached number one or two.


2 – Relying heavily on a number of people to send it to their subscriber lists. Of the 15 who committed to do it, only five actually did and I will do the same for them when they launch their next book or product.


3 – Having Amazon pre order more books, although they did not want to commit to this for an unknown author. Many people who bought the book had to wait while Amazon ordered in stocks and them sent them out.


4 – Not following up with my publishers aggressively enough regarding foreign translation enquiries and distribution I received from some foreign distributors.


5 – MOST IMPORTANTLY – not negotiating a high enough discount for me to buy books to resell.
As you can see, it has taken a huge amount of time and energy to do this and it is the same in any business, you have to make the effort and use multiple marketing strategies to move the business forward.


As a postscript, I have been contacted by two major publishers to help them harness the power of the internet and may be setting up a separate company with one of them. I will also be running a Masterclass and producing an Ebook for potential publishers. So the time and effort was worthwhile after all.


Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales, technology and sales management. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email
frank@frankfurness.com and for resources take a look at http://www.frankfurness.com and http://www.frankfurnessresources.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/


Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at
http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

How to make Money with Teleseminars by Frank Furness


Frank Furness & Alex Mandossian

I always tell my audiences and clients to have a 10 touch plan for all their clients. How can you touch them at least ten times a year:
• Face to face meetings
• Telephone calls
• Conferences and seminars
• Emails
• Newsletters
• Webinars
• Teleseminars

Teleseminars are a great way to keep in touch with clients and potential clients. They build great relationships and as we know, business is about people and relationships. So, what are teleseminars and how do they work?

Teleseminars are a great way to promote your products, services, or to educate your clients and customers about a specific topic. It is one of the fastest, easiest and most economical ways to increase your sales and establish your credibility in your subject area.

The way it works, is that everyone calls into a bridge line. The bridge line allows everyone to hear everyone else, like 3-way calling, only with larger numbers. Most conferencing services have it set up where you, as the moderator have control over muting the call or not. If the call is muted, then only the moderator can speak, if the call isn't muted, then anyone can speak.

Teleseminars can last from 30 minutes to 3 hours. You can also record the call and have it available as a podcast download, sell the recording on a CD or even have the call transcribed and produce it as a book that you can give away or sell.

Teleseminars should have great content and benefits for the listeners and allow them to ask questions and give feedback.
The advantages of teleseminars are:
• No travel for you or your participants, you can do it from home or the office – no parking or travelling hassles
• If someone can’t make the call, they can always listen to it again or buy the CD
• It is a great way to run a seminar remotely to promote or launch new products, provide information, get feedback, run remote sales or marketing meetings and numerous other applications.
• Free seminars are a great way to build your database or get potential clients interested in your products or services. They will see you as the experts in your field and business will follow.
• You can sell products or services and have special promotions or links for those that have taken part in the teleseminar.
• You can interview or collaborate with other experts in your field. I have run teleseminars together with my friend and technology guru Terry Brock while I was sitting at home in London and Terry was in Orlando. I have done the same with a Hollywood media correspondent in LA and my audience included participants from 23 countries. I have even done a teleseminar with Gihan Perera who was in Australia and we had to work the timings carefully with the time differences.

These are the practicalities of how to run a teleseminar:
1. Determine your subject and target audience. What is the level of education of your audience and what are the problems that the teleseminar will solve for them.
2. Determine if you are going to charge for this teleseminar or if it will be free. Typically, if this teleseminar is free, you are going to want to promote your products or services or do an upsell to a seminar or promotion. If the teleseminar is a paid teleseminar, concentrate more on the content rather than the product promotion, your clients are paying for the information you are giving them.
3. Research your content for your teleseminar. – You should do some research before the teleseminar to find out what your audience is expecting or what some of their problems are.
4. Work out the timing of the call. Ensure you cover all the points or answer all the questions within the time frame of the call. I normally have it plotted out on my laptop as paper can get lost or make a lot of noise during the call.
5. Get the right equipment. I like to use a headset which leaves my hands free and I can also stand or move around more freely.
6. Record the teleseminar and perhaps create a transcript. I record the call on a digital recorder as well as get the company organising the lines to record it as well.
7. Before the teleseminar starts, do a roll call of the main speakers, or if applicable, of the attendees on the call.
8. Start and finish your teleconference on time. Many of your audience will have set the time aside and get frustrated and ring off if they have to wait for the seminar to start.
9. Open the call by sharing with your audience your expertise in the subject - Give a little bit about your background and what they will get from the seminar.
10. Take a break. Take a break about every 30 minutes or so. Have people stand up and shake their hands and arms to get the blood moving again.
11. Question Time – I like to keep 10 minutes at the end of the call for questions and try not to take any before that. This is something you must convey at the beginning of the call.
12. At the end of the teleseminar, summarize the information and introduce your product or service that you are promoting. You should create a special page or website for this promotion.
13. Get testimonials. Offer a free product or eBook to anyone giving you a testimonial. I like to record those as well and put them on my website.

Take a look at my interview with Teleseminar Guru Alex Mandossian at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/alex





For resources take a look at http://www.frankfurness.com/ and http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/