Winning Points for Commenting on Blogs

If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score? ~Vince Lombardi

According to Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere, 184 million people in the world have started a blog. With that many people engaging in regular posting, blogs have become a standard way of discussing topics of interest. Regularly commenting on blogs can be a valuable tool for building relationships and gaining SEO links in the major search engines.

How do comments build relationships?
When you regularly read and comment on the same blog, that blog’s owner is likely to take notice. In many cases, this can establish a relationship between you and the blog owner, almost in the same way that having regular discussions with a coworker might. This connection can be established in as little as a few weeks, and can lead to offline discussions and networking opportunities for each of you. If there is a person you want to make a business connection with, but they are a stranger, seeking out the person’s blog and regularly posting comments is an excellent way to open the door.

How can comments build SEO Links?
The more links you have to your website, the higher your page rank is going to be. Comment on blogs is a great way to increase your link count.

When commenting on blogs, you don’t have to use your real name when you post. Instead, using your name followed by a keyword will help gain some search engine indexing (for example: Bonnie the Web Designer). Most blogs will give you the option of linking back to a web site when you leave a comment. Be sure to take advantage of this option by entering your URL. It even better to link to a specific page in your site that you’re trying to get indexed using the keyword you've chosen.

How do I find blogs to comment on?

• Word of Mouth
• Blog directories
• Following on Twitter
• Using keywords in search engines

Does the topic of the blog matter?
It is going to be considered a more relevant link if the topic of the blog relates to your business. But even blogs that are unrelated give you a link back to your site. So if you've chosen to comment on a blog for your hobby, let's say, still use the strategy of your name + keyword to gain a link back to your site.

Are you ready to win?

Planning Effective Meetings

"Football combines the two worst features of American Life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings." George Will, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist

How many meetings have you attended this week, this month, this year? How many of those meeting added value to your day? How many did you consider to be wasted time?

Meetings are a necessary business function if we want to keep people informed and provide a forum for questions and problem solving. But who hasn’t sat through a meeting that went on too long, was not well-organized, or didn’t pertain to your particular job?

Here are some keys to planning an effective meeting:

· Have a clear purpose, and only invite those who have a vested interest in that purpose
· Choose to cover 3-5 key points.
· Create an agenda and publish it in advance so people are prepared
· Have an intended result with which people can align
· Start and end on time!
· Stay on topic! Save other topics that come up for future meetings.
· Keep minutes of the action items, assignments, and delivery dates. Make sure everyone gets a copy of the minutes.

If you hold regular meetings with a group of managers, rotate the meeting leadership every week. Give everyone a turn to lead and develop the meeting agenda. By rotating leadership, meetings become more cohesive and efficient. People listen differently when they know they have to lead the next meeting. Everyone becomes more invested in the process and respectful of each other’s time.

Ask questions to provoke thought and group involvement. Call on specific people instead of just asking for general questions or input. Lead with enthusiasm for the topic and be committed to a result that works for the group. Give everyone an opportunity to participate in the decision making that arises from the discussion.

Use these tips to shift your next meeting into a powerful, effective experience. Good meetings build good teams, and good teams win the game of business/life.

Are you ready to win?

Strategic Account Management & Planning

"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan." - Tom Landry, NFL football coach.

Strategic Account Management and Planning is a concept large corporations use to zero in on decision makers at high-profile companies with whom the organization is interested in doing business. This process of planning and managing key accounts enables companies to build strong, productive ties to their most valuable targets/clients.

Strategic Account Managers: This approach requires a sales team to transform into strategic account managers. Salespeople typically need additional training to acquire the skills they need to successfully manage accounts. Strategic account managers must be visible, have senior level leadership abilities, and be able to direct the company's response to selling or service delivery opportunities. These situations require Strategic Account Managers to sell both internally to these cross-functional teams and externally to senior-level clients.

Senior-level buyers have a different perspective to the buying process than lower level contacts. Your Strategic Account Managers must build credibility and understand executive issues and values to be able to sell to senior-level contacts.

Strategic Account Planning: Questions to consider when determining if an account should be considered a strategic account:

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  What are the keys to getting in the game?


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  What is the potential for doing busienss with this buyer?


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  Are we equipped to handle this level of selling?


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  What will it take to get us there?

Strategic accounts are targeted as follows:

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  Size of company


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  Demand for your type of product across multiple lines of business


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  Large global footprint


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  Financially healthy


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  Executive sponsorship

Each Strategic Account Manager must evaluate each account's long-term revenue potential, as well as strategic importance. This way, you can invest the right level of resources to serve them profitably.

Each account plan requires a significant amount of homework including:

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  Research background and overall strategy


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  Identify key business issues


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  Research overall company direction


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  Build and know the org chart


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  Determine opportunities to make executive-level contacts and touch points at every decision-making level with each department within the buyer's organization for which your products or services are a fit


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  Understand how your value proposition provides a perfect fit for their business


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  Determine high level tasks and activities


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  Track progress – how many opportunities in the pipeline


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  Measure progress against plan goals - how many real sales and in what timeframe

Account Plans contain the overall objectives such as revenue targets, account goals, and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis. Strategic Account Managers must define how they plan to achieve their revenue targets and allocate them appropriately by division/department for each account. Account plans should:

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  Define goals and qualitative objectives for each account


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  Align account goals and compensation with corporate objectives


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  Identify critical success factors for reaching goals


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  Outline the value proposition required to meet the customers’ needs

Strategic Account Management and Planning is not just for the big guys. Even the smallest company will benefit from strategies for finding and servicing key accounts. Take the time to plan for the big game, and you will see your efforts pay off on the bottom line.

Are You Ready to Win?