Make Your Business Card Your Best Salesman

Written by Rick Hendershot


One ofrepparttar most important building blocks of a good marketing plan is your business card. It is far and awayrepparttar 120278 most likely item to find its way intorepparttar 120279 hands of your most important business contacts. And it isrepparttar 120280 one thing that is likely to remain when all your other marketing materials are long gone.

In other words, your business card is much more than just a piece of paper with your name, address and phone number printed on it. It is a powerful sales and marketing tool. And it should be designed with that purpose in mind.

What can a business card do for your business?

Before askingrepparttar 120281 inevitable questions aboutrepparttar 120282 design of your business card, you should ask what its function in your overall marketing plan should be. A properly designed business card has at least four important marketing functions. Here they are:

1. It helps you to introduce your company. 2. It provides critical contact information about you or your company. 3. It conveys your most important sales message. 4. It communicates your corporate image.

An introduction to your company

This may seem obvious, but think about it for a minute. Think of your business card as a tool for opening doors. Think of yourself at a meeting, or even at a social event. What better way to introduce yourself to a person than to hand them your card?

I'm not talking about shoving your card on people who don't want it. I'm talking about using your card as a tool to make useful connections with people who are likely to appreciaterepparttar 120283 introduction.

This suggests you should think of appropriate introductory "openers" to accompany your card. For instance, say you're at a business connections meeting. Sincerepparttar 120284 purpose ofrepparttar 120285 meeting is to meet people and do "networking", you might try a simple card swap strategy: "Hi, I'm Harriet Phillips. I'm swapping business cards with as many people as I can. Here's my card. May I have one of yours for my contact file?"

Every situation will be a bit different, butrepparttar 120286 function ofrepparttar 120287 card remainsrepparttar 120288 same: it provides you with an excuse to introduce your business to people who might be able to use your services.

Provide critical contact information on your card

Before you put your business card intorepparttar 120289 hands of prospects, you want to make sure it communicatesrepparttar 120290 most important things about you and your company.

Deciding what information is "critical" will vary from business to business. The basics are pretty obvious: your name, your company name, your business address, andrepparttar 120291 most effective way for people to get hold of you — probably your telephone number and email address.

Rather than putting your cell or pager number on all your business cards, you might make a point of writing it onrepparttar 120292 card when you think it is appropriate: "Here, I'll give you my cell number, just in case you can't reach me at my office number." That givesrepparttar 120293 impression you're giving this person special treatment.

Include Your Most Important Sales Message

Even more important than giving prospects your basic contact information is conveying your Most

Important Sales Message. According to Cesar Crespo of Free Card Business Card Displays, "Business people often miss a golden opportunity to make their business card a powerful sales tool. Our clients are often surprised at how much more effective we can make their cards."

Incorporate Humor in Your Next Speech

Written by Stephen D. Boyd


Some speakers say, “I could never use humor in my speech; I just don’t feel comfortable with it.” I believe that anyone can use humor and that it is a valuable tool in speaking. Appropriate humor relaxes an audience and makes it feel more comfortable with you asrepparttar speaker; humor can bring attention torepparttar 120277 point you are making; and humor will helprepparttar 120278 audience better remember your point. It can break down barriers so thatrepparttar 120279 audience is more receptive to your ideas. First, let me make it easy for you to use humor. The best and most comfortable place to find humor for a speech is from your own personal experience. Think back on an embarrassing moment that you might have thought not funny atrepparttar 120280 time. Now that you can laugh atrepparttar 120281 experience, you understandrepparttar 120282 old adage "Humor is simply tragedy separated by time and space." Or think of a conversation that was funny. Rememberrepparttar 120283 punch line and use it in your speech. Probablyrepparttar 120284 least risky use of humor is a cartoon. The cartoon is separate from you and if people don't laugh, you don't feel responsible. (Be sure to secure permission to use it.) You're not trying to be a comedian; you just want to make it easy for people to pay attention and to help them remember your point. Here are some suggestions on using humor to make your next speech have more impact. 1. Make surerepparttar 120285 humor is funny to you. If you don’t laugh or smile atrepparttar 120286 cartoon, joke, pun, one-liner, story, or other forms of humor, then you certainly cannot expect an audience to do so. A key to using humor is only using humor that makes you laugh or smile. 2. Before using humor in your speech, try it out with small groups of people. Do they seem to enjoy it? Even if your experimental group does not laugh or smile initially, don’t give up onrepparttar 120287 humor, becauserepparttar 120288 problem might be inrepparttar 120289 way you are deliveringrepparttar 120290 joke or quip. I often use this line in talking aboutrepparttar 120291 importance of listening. “We are geared to a talk society. Someone said, ‘The only reason we listen is so we can talk next!'” When I first tried that line, people did not smile; but I worked onrepparttar 120292 timing so that I paused and smiled after “listen” and that seemed to work. I was rushing throughrepparttar 120293 punch line and did not give people time to be prepared forrepparttar 120294 humorous part. It took practice to get comfortable withrepparttar 120295 piece of humor. Only use humor in a speech after you are comfortable telling it from memory and have tested it. 3. Make surerepparttar 120296 humor relates torepparttar 120297 point you are making. Do not use humor that is simply there to makerepparttar 120298 audience laugh. The humor should tie in with some aspect of your speech. For example, I tell about my experience of getting braces at age 46 and how difficult it was for me to get used torepparttar 120299 wires and rubber bands in my mouth. After I tellrepparttar 120300 story I makerepparttar 120301 point that you may have not hadrepparttar 120302 braces problem I had, but we all have challenges in communicating well, and what we want to look at today are ways of making it easier for us to be more effective in speaking. The audience enjoysrepparttar 120303 story but also remembersrepparttar 120304 point that I'm making. If you don’t tie your humor to your presentation,repparttar 120305 audience may likerepparttar 120306 humor, but will wonder what point you are attempting to make.

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