Monday:
Tuesday: Gross Domestic Product 3rd quarter est., Existing Home Sales
Wednesday: Personal Income and Consumption, New Home Sales, Crude Inventories
Thursday: Durable Goods Orders, Weekly initial jobless claims
Friday:
Larson Notes & Satire: Jobs, jobs, jobs. The statics that came out last week did not look good for jobs. As we look to the New Year there are two major areas we need to be looking at productivity and jobs. If we can put in place the jobs needed we will increase…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 20, 2009 at 12:30am —
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2009 has not been a nice year to a lot of us. Working harder and seeing less in the way of tangible returns. But despite the economic problems there has been some good solid upgrades in many of my customer service efforts, more is needed but progress has been made. What kinds of efforts have I been working on? Efforts that make a real difference? Well, poorly designed interactions, broken processes, out of date business runes, insufficient customer insight, and a business culture that is far fro…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 18, 2009 at 8:23am —
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Law 1: The law of significance - One Is too small a number to achieve greatness!
Law 2: The law of the big picture - The goal is more important than the roll.
Law3: The law of the niche – All players have a place where they add the most value.
Law 4: The law of Mount Everest – As the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates.
Law 5: Law of the chain – The strength of the team is impacted by its weakest link.
Law 6: Law of the catalyst – Winning teams have players who make things happen…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 16, 2009 at 2:30am —
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In the early days of SEM companies had to go out and convince big companies on the value. Not so anymore. According to the trade group SEMPO 9 out of 10 marketers practice organic search optimization and 70% use some kind of.
Yet the markting is still evolving. Google has 65% of the search market but no one is giving them a free ride. In April Microsoft announce it’s now search engine Bing with an $80 million dollar ad push. Then in July Microsoft and Yahoo announced a deal in which Bing would…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 12, 2009 at 5:07am —
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As we close on 2009 and the first real year of having twitter as a major part of our marketing what have we learned?
1st, I really don’t need to know all this stuff right now. That’s right, most things can wait.
2nd That being said I do like to find about some things fast, I mean really fast. There are certain things that I like to be at the top of the knowing curve
3rd, Being the first to know something is only an illusory thing. Twitter is about real time knowledge and information. But when…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 9, 2009 at 4:28am —
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Monday: October Consumer Credit
Tuesday:
Wednesday: October wholesale inventories,
Thursday: October trade balance, Weekly initial jobless claims
Friday: November retail sales, October business inventories
Larson Notes: I was surprised at the drip in unemployment yet I am deeply concerned that construction has no backlog in projects and that there is no big [private sector construction going on. As government projects end so will employment in his secto…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 8, 2009 at 1:30am —
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What is a lead? Do you really know what a lead for your company is? Do you know when a prospect has everything lined up to buy form you. Or are you sitting there with the old “if they can fog a mirror they are a lead” mentality?
In the business to business (b2b) world, specifically in telemarketing a sales ready lead is defined as “someone who has engaged in a meaningful conversation and has a defined purchasing project of need, a timeframe to buy, a budget and a willingness to further the conv…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 5, 2009 at 8:16am —
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Getting the best lead generation usually comes down to keeping focused on a few things:
First, target the right prospects. Review who has bought from your company in the past year and develop an ideal prospect model. Industries, company size, geography, reason they use your company, who started the buying process, who made the final decision, why did they select your company, how did they justify the decision to purchase (now),. If you can answer these and a few other questions you will start t…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 4, 2009 at 3:52am —
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Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in November for the fourth consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the seventh consecutive month, according to the latest Manufacturing Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Report On Business®.
Manufacturing growth decelerated in November as the PMI registered 53.6 percent, a decrease of 2.1 percentage points when compared to October's reading of 55.7 percent. This continues the recovery in the sector, but at a slower rate of g…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 2, 2009 at 7:01am —
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Monday: Regional Manufacturing Surveys,
Tuesday: Pending Home Sales, Auto Sales,
Wednesday: Personal Income and Consumption,
Thursday: Revised Productivity and Costs
Friday: Crude Inventories, Weekly initial jobless claims, average workweek, average hourly earnings figures, Factory Orders
Larson Notes: Last week was a very interesting. While I was not expecting such nice numbers in home sales and employment. And even Black Friday showed a sales increase of .5%.
I like the outlook for th…
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Added by Howard Larson on December 2, 2009 at 2:31am —
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I spend so much time pushing goods and services that sometimes I forget to look at the shelf to see if it is full or not.
During a recession managing relationships on the supplier side can take on a different tone. If a key supplier goes out of business you could be in trouble. As a buyer you need to work with your existing suppliers during these tough times, while at the same time developing alternative sources of needed goods and services for a worst case scenario.
I have been a big advocate…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 26, 2009 at 2:01am —
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Who really runs the show? That’s right your customers. If you’re not listening you your customers you are in deep trouble. If you are reading this you are already well on your way to being a top flight marketer.
Lesson 1: Listen. If you are reading this you are 9 times out of 10 already involved in SM marketing in some way shape or form. So, take it to the next level. This involves listening to what is really being said in the marketplace. Set up forum questions, Make poles. Do wh…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 25, 2009 at 3:28am —
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Monday: Existing Home Sales,
Tuesday: Gross Domestic Product, Consumer Confidence
Wednesday: Personal Income and Consumption, Weekly initial jobless claims
Thursday: Thanksgiving Day
Friday: Black Friday, New Home Sales, Crude Inventories
Larson Notes: People are sitting back wondering if they are next to get the pink slip. There is not much room to maneuver in the marketing right now. Retail has been trying to stretch out Christmas by trying to get cus…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 24, 2009 at 1:30am —
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How do you keep your customers happy and returning time and time again?
If you are able to maintain regular communication with all your customers you are maintaining the most critical part of a successful relationship. You need to engage with them in order to provide value that goes beyond just your product or service. One way is to create forums where your customers can come and discuss experiences while you participate. This can be done face to face or online. The technology is out there.…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 20, 2009 at 4:08am —
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How do you keep your customers happy and returning time and time again?
If you are able to maintain regular communication with all your customers you are maintaining the most critical part of a successful relationship. You need to engage with them in order to provide value that goes beyond just your product or service. One way is to create forums where your customers can come and discuss experiences while you participate. This can be done face to face or online. The technology is out there.…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 20, 2009 at 4:08am —
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Direct mail has a cost that you need to be able to handle in this recession, and it is easy to put snail mail and park it as a bad way to market but I beg to differ.
Experience shows that many B2B marketing campaigns actually have a better ROI (Return On Investment) than an email campaign when done as a standalone unit. E-Mail is less expensive so why? Consider this first direct mail lists are more plentiful and generally cleaner that an e-mail list you might get.
Second, most of us are still…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 18, 2009 at 2:30am —
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Direct mail has a cost that you need to be able to handle in this recession, and it is easy to put snail mail and park it as a bad way to market but I beg to differ.
Experience shows that many B2B marketing campaigns actually have a better ROI (Return On Investment) than an email campaign when done as a standalone unit. E-Mail is less expensive so why? Consider this first direct mail lists are more plentiful and generally cleaner that an e-mail list you might get.
Second, most of us are still…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 18, 2009 at 2:30am —
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With African American buying power project to reach $1.2 trillion by 2013 marketers are already looking for ways to capitalize on those dollars. Understand this, simply featuring an African American in your campaign does not work, you MUST recognize and speak to the distinctions with in this consumer segment.
African American buying power in 2008 in 2008 stood at $913 Billion Dollars up 187% from the $318 Billion in 1990
86% of African American women say advertisers need to do a better jog mar…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 11, 2009 at 5:54am —
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Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims,
Friday: Trade Balance
Larson Notes: As expected everything was good except employment. Did you really think we would not hit unemployment over 10%. But the good news was there. Interest rates remain low. With inventory levels low production levels were raised. And productivity are higher, Government extended the home buyers tax rebate, but the heath care squeaked though the house even with a large group of…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 10, 2009 at 1:30am —
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What should you be doing when using the various Social Media Networking sites to generate business leads?
Social Media Networking is about reaching people who know little or nothing about you and engage them on a person level with a friendly warm approach. And example would be if you sold running shoes. You could set up a facebook group or a Twitter feed showing your interest and knowledge in the area of specialty shoes. Of course only people how are looking to talk specialty running shoes wou…
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Added by Howard Larson on November 7, 2009 at 9:45am —
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