I have just had a visit from Tony Chang - Tony, TC (Top Cat) as he is known is the cousin of Stephen Chang who is a very good friend of mine and also a trusted business adviser to me.

Tony is helping me develop business in Asia and flew in for a whirlwind brainstorming session, just for the weekend!  Tony, like all of the Chang family that I have met is totally committed to what he does and is also a super salesman!  We spent the whole weekend discussing the Cerion sales and marketing strategy as well as entering into a heated debate over which type of Gin is the best. I had to argue fiercely over this even though I very rarely drink the stuff - still, I can't resist an argument, especially with Tony!

Tony is absolutely convinced that in the sales process, it is the last 1% that is absolutely critical.  He talks passionately about how you can have a great value proposition, have a great marketing strategy, do great presentations and fail over the minute detail - this is the 1%.  For Tony, it is all in the detail, the painstaking research and intelligence that ensures you are on the right track - setting up the 'close' before you even speak to your prospect.  I am definitely going to produce a video featuring Tony and his effective sales techniques and processes.

Now putting Tony in the same room as Crazy Jack was sure to be explosive, but actually they agreed on everything, which made for a very productive meeting.  I have partnered with Jack to form Franklin-Spirko Media, offering creative design, sales and marketing strategies, PR as well as business consulting.  We believe that too much corporate time is wasted on creating the perfect 'look' for a company - spending hard earned dollars in developing websites that are little more than expensive shop windows.  It is all about putting the marketing collateral into action and earning revenues.  Take the Internet for example, right now while corporate executives are debating politically correct 'copy', a college student is producing a simply designed functional website, with mis-spelled copy and what most people would regard as 'cheesy' copy.  But he is earning a fortune!  Why? Because he has no fear and if it doesn't work, he simply takes it down and tries something else.  It is this almost primal, fearless approach that Jack and I will take to the corporate world.

Stay tuned!

~ Neil

Technorati Tags: design, PR, sales, marketing, business, media, video

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