Plant - Feed - Harvest

Plant Your Best Seeds

Life coach, Michael Neil states “When you approach sales from a place of joyful service, you realize making offers is like planting a garden. Instead of focusing on what you might get back if you’re lucky, take some time to think about what you would like to grow.”

Ask yourself questions like:

• Who would I love to serve?  How would I love to serve them?
• What would be the most powerful, fun, and useful thing I could do for this client or customer?
• If I dedicated my life to making this person/company’s life better, what is the biggest difference I could make for them in the smallest amount of time?

Feeling Finding Questions help bring answers your prospect may not even know are under the surface. I have often gone into meetings with prospects and existing customers for a specific project and after further discussion we have determined another solution or product would serve their goals better. The following questions were shared with me by Phil Kline who is an expert in Dale Carnegie Sales Training. These questions are more valuable insight are provided in Phil’s book, Customer Driven Sales.

6 FEELING FINDING QUESTIONS:

1. What do you like most about your current product (website, logo, brand, marketing efforts)

2. Why is that important to you?

3. What do you dislike most about your present product (website,logo brand…)

4. Why is that a problem for you?

5. If I could change something for you in your next product what would you want me to do differently?

6. Why would that be important to you?

When questions are asked from a place of joyful inquiry, the answers are truthful, creative, fun, and take root. Don’t skip the ‘Why’ questions! As your prospect digs deep to answer the ‘why’ the true reason behind the need can be discovered.

Harvest Low-Hanging Fruit

Often the best sale to make is going to existing clients and customers. When working with customers for a long time is is easy to get into ruts. Projects can flow well, which is always a blessing but are we doing the best we can or are we staying safe? Especially with marketing and graphic design it is important to always look at new ways of approaching concepts. You don’t have to throw the baby out with the bath water and completely reinvent everything. Sometimes just a change in logo placement or color can update a Web site or print marketing piece. Other times digging deep into the entire brand and relating it to the business as it is today is needed. If you take the time to  ask questions to find the differences your customer would love to make and the way they would most like to make them, you can deliver creative solutions that help your customer relationship and their business flourish.

Happy seed planting and remember to appreciate the abundance of the harvest.

If you like the Sustainable Sales Growth image please visit our desktop patterns area. We have a “Money as Tools” saying on the images posted. If you would like to use one as your desktop pattern, download the image size that fits you monitor.

As a marketing and design firm specializing in branding solutions we work with customers across the United States and Canada. We are located in the Lansing, Michigan area and much of our clientele are in Lansing and Grand Rapids. In the over twelve years of launching Connection Graphics, I have been pleased to see the growth and improvements both of these cities have made. Since I attended Kendall College of Art and Design in the, dare I say it – 80s’, Grand Rapids skyline and downtown offerings have improved dramatically. Areas where once I was tentative to ride my bike have now become revitalized, thriving neighborhoods.  With the diverse corporations and big donor names such as VanAndel and DeVos, Grand Rapids has been blessed with a stream of  financial gifts and investments.

Lansing, on the other hand, with its deep roots in the auto industry, has seen challenges and limited financial support. Even though it is the state capital of Michigan, the challenges the State has encountered has limited  state investment  and growth for the city. Fortunately, with a new diverse group of industries moving to the city, including many large insurance corporations, biotech companies, and of course the continued growth at MSU, Cooley Law School, and the many other higher education institutions, Lansing is growing and attracting a dynamic group of young residents. Downtown Lansing has expanded its offerings for nightlife and entertainment and Oldtown has continued to be a destination for celebrating the arts with its many festivals and locally owned boutique shops.

Local online newspaper, Capital Gains has dedicated a lot of ink to share the many wonderful events, happenings and growth Lansing is experiencing. Recently they featured a couple of articles on one of our favorite clients, Lambs’ Gate Antiques. Lambs’ Gate is locally owned by Carol Lamb. The first store in Grand Ledge has enjoyed much success throughout the years and Carol boldly chose to expand this Spring and opened Lambs’ Gate Antiques in OldTown. Managed by her daughter-in-law Ashley, the new store is the epitome of what is OldTown, eclectic, unique and colorful.

To learn more about the shops please view the Capital Gains article about Lambs’ Gate and the Lambs’ Gate Web site. To read more about the young talent Lansing is attracting and get a glimpse of why Lambs’ Gate Oldtown is experiencing such a welcoming response, read the Capital Gains article on Dan and Ashley Lamb.

Be sure to friend the Lambs’ Gate Antiques facebook site and join the newsletter to receive monthly coupons!

Monitor Your Brand…

A great brand can be costly and can take months, if not years, to build. It’s a foundational piece in your marketing communication that you do not want to be without. In this internet age It can be destroyed in hours by a blogger upset with your company. Stay connected to what is being said. The first thing to do is acquire a feed reader. (Google reader has many nice features.)

1. Google Alerts are email updates of the latest results based on your choice of query or topic. The alerts tracks blog posts, news articles, videos and even groups.

2. Blog Comments – Use BackType.com

3. Social Comments -

Yacktrack.com searches Wordpress, Blogger, Stumbleupon, Digg, FriendFeed, etc. for comments on you and your blogging, social media, activity.

4. Twitter – Using Twitter search, you can locate any instances of your name. Try Twilert and TweetBeep too!

5. FriendFeed.com is a social aggregator. You can search your brand throughout all social networks at once.

6. Social Mention is a social media search engine for user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services.

I hope these four posts on Corporate branding have been helpful. Please contact me if you have any questions!

Connection Graphics offers a complete range of technology, Web development and creative services. We are passionate about crafting quality corporate identity and marketing strategies at reasonable rates, and we are skilled at developing and creating:

• Brand identity

• Website Design

• Corporate brochures

• Corporate Identity Packages

• Corporate presentations

• Banner and billboard creations

• Ads and marketing materials for print & online

• Product & Event Marketing

• Product package graphic design, and more…

Protect Your Brand…

Administrative assistants and sales staff snag logos from the corporate website, change the color, stretch them and use them on everything from brochures to social media profiles. The longer this practice is allowed to continue the more it will cost the company. Soon you have diluted image awareness and your brand is compromised. If this is happening in your company you need to stop it. The best way to start is by establishing and distributing company-wide standards.

Brand guidelines:

About the brand (positioning, key research findings, etc)

• Usage and application
• Specifics (font, color, tagline, trademarks, etc)
• Communication roles and responsibilities - (identify specific staff and departments)
• Support and contacts - (in case there are any questions)

Literature (Correspondence, Web and Print):

• Logo and tagline (colors, size, placement…)
• Color palette (pantone, cmyk, rgb)
• Imagery (photos, illustration style…)
• Typography (fonts, size, color…)
• Applications (Web, print, vehicle…)
• Paper specifications (color, weight, texture)

Your employees meet, greet, and assist your customers in many different ways. They are the face of your brand. Engaging your staff in brand training will build their faith in the brand and send a unified message to your customers and community.

Logo for Connection Graphics. Updated in 2007 from the initial logo created in 1996.

Create Your Visual Brand…

Strong branding strategies use design to communicate a message that attracts your target audience. An image is needed that creates confidence in your brand while differentiating you from your competitors.

1. Logos

• a unique and easily recognizable image promotes easy recognition

• visually communicates your business nature

• demonstrates business is current and pays attention to reputation in the market

• makes it easier to attract international business, because they are able to instantly understand your business offerings.

I love to design logos for new companies, or companies ready to update their image. It truly is the most rewarding work I do. Presenting a logo design and hear “How did you do that? It is like you read my mind? My business feels real to me now!” It really is an amazing feeling for everyone. (Still kind of reminds me of Steve Martin in The Jerk movie when he sees his name in the phone book and exclaims “I’m Somebody Now!”. I know this reference dates me but it is a classic!

2. Correspondence & Promotions

Business cards, stationary, postcards, flyers, brochures, invitations, notecards, catalogs, specialty advertising… A strong, consistent corporate visual identity throughout your communication and marketing efforts helps to effectively express your mission and create a solid image.

A unique, custom image sets you apart in prospects eyes more than any marketing effort you endeavor. If your materials look as if they have been produced by an amateur, viewers assume your services or products are cheap or unreliable. In these days of desktop publishing and online print companies, it is so easy to create your own postcards, sales sheets, etc. with a template included in your software program or online print site. Consider thousands – maybe millions of people – depending on the software, and online printer, have access to the same template and clip art. In one day I seen the same layout used by a law firm as a pet groomer. I have collected over 20 business cards from different companies who used the same online printer layout! All different industries! I get confused who I am calling, a massage therapist or a lighting expert – their business cards are exactly the same. Hard to trust that they will provide individual service if they do not recognize the important of their brand message.

Lastly, if you are going to produce in house – and even if you outsource your marketing promotions, proofread carefully! Spell check doesn’t catch all errors.

3. Website and Internet Marketing

A well designed website creates an image of an established company. Hving broken links on a Web site instantly discredits your company to the visitor. If there is just one and the rest of the site is functioning well, people usually understand, too many non-functioning items, links and pages, demonstrate a lack of attention to detail. Take a look around the net -be honest – which Web sites have been created by the owners nephew and which sites have been organized and developed by a professional Web site design and development firm? It really is that obvious. Templates sites are similar concern with Web sites as they are with print materials. Do you really want your Web presence to be the exact same as your competition, or worse with a shady industry? It is important to establish a unique, custom identity. You don’t have to go overboard and drop a lot of money. Custom can be created in a budget too.

Lastly, don’t be stuck in the mind set that once your site is posted, the job is done. A static site does very little good. First and foremost, search engines don’t like them. If your site content is not updated regularly search engines ignore it and move on. Your site doesn’t get recognition and falls in the rankings. Another consideration for updating is you want visitors to keep coming back! Give good content that educates them or post new products and samples. COnsider the more information you provide your visitor the less time you have to spend selling them or answering the same questions time and time again. Build your Web site as your electronic sales rep.

This applies to e-newsletters, blogs and social media pages too – don’t muddy your brand!

4. Signage and Vehicle lettering

When a corporate logo is prominently displayed on a company vehicle, the customer is put at ease knowing the person coming in their door is legitimate. It enhances customer comfort during maintenance calls, etc. Of course many of us have experienced going in circles looking for a business because their signage doesn’t exist, is too small so it can not be read from the road or doesn’t contain the corporate logo or colors we are familiar with from their business cards or other promotions. A note about signage is to be aware of the signage zoning in your community before creating or posting a sign. Signage zoning laws cover sign dimensions, placement, distance from the road, illuminated or non-illuminated, etc.

Do you need help with any of these elements? Connection Graphics specializes in the design and production of all the above marketing and branding visuals. Give us a call today. The first hour consultation is complimentary!