A fence doesn’t make a comfortable chair!

We've all heard it a thousand times: "I like what you're proposing, but I need to think it over."

A week turns into a month. And an army of advisors come on the scene. Accountants, lawyers, spouses, employees -- suddenly the would-be decision-maker can't make a move until a town hall is convened, a vote is held and the count is certified.

And all the while, you know the deal is going south. Those prospects are engaged in a delaying tactic, sitting squarely on the fence. Your challenge is to push them off. And I do mean "push," because the conventional approaches of coaxing, begging, pleading and cajoling don't work. In fact, they have the inverse effect. As you look weaker and more desperate, prospects become that much more determined to nail themselves to the fence.

"OK," you ask, "how do I accomplish this push without being overly aggressive?"

Well, you need to start by understanding that the prospect is refusing to make a decision because of one primary reason: fear. Your goal is to identify the fear, and then dismantle it.

The following are the top five fear factors and how to remove them as obstacles to your sale:

1. I'm spending money that I think I'm better off saving.
   
   Response: You won't ever make money by saving it. I know you may be concerned about making a purchase at this time, but this isn't a purchase; it's an investment. If you believe it's a quality product or service, as you say you do, there's no reason not to invest now and reap the rewards going forward. Good investments start to pay dividends immediately. Why should you wait to start collecting returns?



2. There are far more attractive pricing options on the internet; I'd be overpaying if I accepted your terms.
   
   Response: It's true that you get what you pay for. The online vendor you're contemplating likely has no direct service support, no history with you and your brands, you've never heard of them or they are not as well regarded as we are. Saving pennies now to give back dollars later never makes sense. By thinking this over endlessly, you're failing to put the asset you need or want into place. That means you're denying yourself personally by failing to arm your business with a competitive weapon, and you're acting as your own worst enemy.



3. My whole team is not onboard with the purchase. The final decision is mine, of course, but I want it to be a consensus.
   
   Response: Consensus is just another word for a committee. You're right, you are the leader. The best way for leaders to lead is to take action while others are paralyzed. I assure you, given the superiority of this product, once it's in place your team will appreciate your wisdom and foresight. In fact, I'm going to ask a fellow manager who purchased this from me to contact you and share his experience to date. He too faced resistance internally -- some people always say "no" -- but he forged ahead and now the decision is widely viewed as a game-changer.



4. What if a new model comes out shortly that makes this version obsolete or second best?
   
   Response: I give you my word that we don't have any new models ready for market any time soon, nor do our competitors. What's more, when we do get ready to release a new version, you'll be among the first to know, and I will work with my company to offer you an attractive upgrade opportunity, if you so desire. You'll get the best of both worlds: our current state-of-the-art offering and a great trade-in deal as soon as a new version is available. There's no reason not to act now. You're protected.



5. This economy is so shaky; it doesn't seem to make sense to do anything until we have a clearer picture of the macroeconomics.
   
   Response: One of the worst things you can do is allow macroeconomics to dictate how you do business. The world, the economy, is not going to collapse. It may stay weak for longer than we'd both like, but when the pie shrinks, the winners move proactively to claim a bigger piece of it. Those who sit in bunkers waiting for the dust to settle always fall behind those who took immediate action.

Led by the rules of traditional selling, the tendency is to try to entice fence-sitters with sales, deals, special offers, etc., but I say no to that. Find the fear, and demonstrate through a firm rebuttal that the object of concern is really a paper tiger.

Great salespeople don't try to charm fence-sitters into action. They make it uncomfortable for them to keep stalling by forcing them to confront their fears.

Easy way to FAIL!

I opened my email the other day to find a message from BranchOut, asking me to "Like" its page and I'd immediately be entered for a chance to win a new iPad. Good enough, I thought—it's an easy click on the button, I already enjoy the service, and who wouldn’t want a new iPad. So...

"Click"

Immediately, a new window appears stating "503 Error—Request could not be completed."

Hmmm….okay, let’s try that again. "Click."

Same message: "503 Error—Request could not be completed."

At this point, I'm done. Out of here. If you can't do a simple thing like process the link from your OWN email, then I don't have time to wait, and won't remember to come back at a later date. It's not THAT important.

That's the message here. When you engage the customer—whether through email, social media, print advertising or face-to-face, make sure you can complete your offer and satisfy the customer’s need or want AT THAT MOMENT. If you take the mindset that they will return later, or there's another chance tomorrow, or you will "get around to it," you've shown the customer that he or she is less important in this exchange than whatever you are doing. Your customer has a variety of things to do during their day—things that are important to them—and if they've taken part of their valuable time to interact with you, they want to know that you're giving them you undivided attention.

Because if you don’t, there’s certainly no shortage of others who will.

To blog…or not to blog. That is the question.

Corporate websites are often little more than interactive brochures that display basic information and describe what the business offers. But if you’re looking to do more — establish yourself as thought leaders in the industry, develop relationships with customers or gather feedback from prospects and clients — then a company blog is a much better choice.

"A blog can also be the centerpiece for a social media effort, driving visitors from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn back to the blog through calls-to-action and landing pages," explains Douglas Karr, the author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies. "A blog has the flexibility to produce content easily, syndicate that content through any medium using RSS, and convert that audience into customers."

Unfortunately, if approached incorrectly, a company blog has just as much potential to embarrass your company or alienate customers. Mashable recently asked Karr, internet marketing experts, and small business bloggers about the most common mistakes that companies make when starting a blog — and how to avoid them.

• Starting Without a Strategy

Don’t take starting a company blog lightly. Even if only a handful of people visit it at first, those few people will likely be clients or have the potential to become them.

"The biggest mistake that most small businesses make when it comes to blogging is to assume that it’s an easy task," explains Marjorie R. Asturias, the president of web marketing firm Blue Volcano Media. "That sets them up for a cascade of mistakes, starting with the fact that they generally jump in without a discernible strategy, much less something as essential as an editorial calendar."

When thinking through your blog strategy, consider:

• Is a blog right for my business? "Some companies aren’t social and never will be. If you can’t keep generating content, then don’t start," explains Karr. "If you can’t be transparent, don’t start. If you can’t respond to negativity, don’t start. You need to understand the ramifications of making mistakes or blogging poorly before you decide haphazardly to begin."
  


• What business objective do I want to accomplish? Your goals should drive your content. If your goal is to connect with industry thought leaders, for instance, your content will be much different than if your goal is to drive more sales. Christian Russell, who runs sales blog Dangerous Tactics, found this out the hard way. "Originally I was operating on the belief that having a blog and posting good content regularly was the recipe for sales," he says. "But I found a huge separation between people reading my blog and those who were buying from me. I’ve only just recently begun making changes to the site to make offers much more clear, and I’ve already noticed important changes. Instead of just getting subscribers, I’m getting more inquiries and leads for what I sell." Karr says that acquisition, retention, building authority and customer support are all strategies to consider.
  


• Am I willing to allocate the necessary resources? As the saying goes: No pain, no gain. If you set up a blog, expect to dedicate time and resources. Josh Chan, an online marketing specialist at Chromatix design admits that his company’s blog underestimated the commitment. "Trying to come up with valuable content even just once a day means someone in your small business has to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour preparing and posting it," he says.
  


• Making it All About You

It’s a fact: Companies tend to talk about how great they are. But a blog exclusively discussing this point is bound for not-so-greatness. Before posting a shamelessly promotional blog entry, please note:

• A blog is not a press section. There should be a section on your site that is dedicated to company news, if you’re willing to share it. But using your blog this way can be detrimental. "Blogs allow consumers to view the human side of a business, but repeated promotional posts take away the brand’s personality and position the blog as a one-way advertising medium rather than an engagement platform," explains Whitney Sewell, a social media manager at Social Media Solutions.
  


• Your audience’s needs. "Businesses want to write dry, information-based articles that highlight their own accomplishments," explains Angela Neal, an online marking consultant based in Scotland. "I see blogs full of statistics and product details that are full of jargon and technical terms that only somebody within the company would know or understand."

Take a step back and think about what your readers want to learn about. Is it advice? Analysis? Industry news? Figure out what you can provide that is valuable to your readers.

• Failure to Link

Links should be an integral component of anything that calls itself a blog. To embrace them to their fullest:

• Don’t be afraid to link out: "Many business blogs get so carried away with minimizing PageRank leakage that they end up stifling their blog’s narrative potential," says Rohin Guha, a community manager at online marketing firm Blue Phoenix Media. "As a company, you want to present the impression that you know what’s happening in the world around you, and unless your daily archives can fill that role, you’ll have to turn to other sources." Guha suggests setting a minimum number of links for each blog post to get in the habit of linking out.



• Don’t forget to link to yourself: Digital filing company OfficeDrop hosted a blog on its site for more than a year without linking back to the main page. "Some of our blog entries are the most visited pages on our site, and some of them are very high PageRank sites," says Head of Marketing Healy Jones. "Now, we take advantage of the SEO power and readership of the blog to have SEO links all over the blog that link back to different pages on our website. Since the blog has a lot of search engine juice (it has a lot of inbound links), we now use it aggressively to transfer rank to the most important pages on our main site."
  


• Not Being Yourself

Being yourself means a couple of things:

• Don’t make the intern write the blog: Have someone who can represent the company write about it. An intern impersonating the CEO does not cut it.
  


• Let some "human" show: No one wants to read stiff, corporate jumble. Plus, it’s easier and more engaging to write like a person and not a corporate entity.
  


• A personal tone doesn’t mean that you blog about personal matters: "This isn’t the opportunity to post your favorite ’80s video off of YouTube," Karr says. "This is the opportunity to wow your audience by being a subject matter expert in your field. Keep your personal stories on your personal blog or on Facebook — where your next prospect won’t be offended by them."



• Blog what you know: What works for everyone else might not work for your company. When Stella Fayman started a blog for FeeFighters.com, she looked at other small businesses’ blogs and saw they were all blogging about social media. Seeing how this topic worked for them, she started blogging about social media even though it was only tangentially related to the company.

"After a while, I realized that in order to establish our brand as a small business finance resource, we needed to blog about what no one else talking about and what was more related to our business: small business operations and finance," she says. "Our traffic increased significantly after we made this switch."

• Ignoring Social Media

Your posts are not going to promote themselves. Get the word out by leveraging your company’s social media accounts. When you write a new post, discuss it on Twitter and Facebook. Make sure all of your social profiles include a link to your blog. When someone comments on your blog or contacts you about something you wrote through another channel, respond.

"Remember, the biggest benefit of the social web is building relationships, so you must make an effort to engage your readers and respond to them in a timely manner that not only acknowledges them, but makes them feel like valued members of your online community," says Susan Gunelius, CEO of marketing communications company KeySplash Creative.

Don't Forget National Caramel Corn Day!

Caramel Corn day is rapidly approaching, so don’t miss out on a new business opportunity, or a chance to improve your current line. National Caramel Corn Day will take place on Thursday, April 28th.

Hear success stories and speak to people who know the secrets to success. Gold Medal is your one-stop-shop for all your caramel corn needs. Whether it's for a small or large store, we have it all! Register now at a location near you.

Click here to learn more about National Caramel Corn Day:
Register of National Caramel Corn Day.

Customer Service Is Important Now More Than Ever

In the current economy customer service is more important than ever. Customers simply will not do business with anything less than exceptional services do to the wide array of choices they have to pick from.

Bad customer service can lead to that person relating their individual story to their friends or even worse posting their bad experience on the Internet in a group forum that has frequent traffic. This can lead to a heavy decline in sales and maybe even eventually going out of business.

On the other hand, if you deliver quality, timely and superior service this will lead to sales growth and ensure consumer confidence. This type of service will make your current customers firmly entrenched with your company and new customers less likely to shop around for other avenues to purchase goods. It is always easier to keep and properly service and grow current customers than to search for new ones.

US News and World Report did a study and found that the average American business loses 15% of its customer base each year.

• 68% of customers who stop buying from one business and go to another do so because of poor or indifferent service.


• 14% leave because of an unsatisfactorily resolved dispute or complaint.


• 9% leave because of price.


• 5% go elsewhere based on a recommendation.


• 1% dies.


• 82% goes somewhere else because of a customer service issue!

The two most striking points are that only 9% leave due to price and 82% because of service! This is great news for dealers concerned about price, because you can increase your revenue by simply retaining and keeping your current customers happy and satisfied with your service.

Post written by: Jeremy Carle Zone Manager @ Gold Medal Products^® Co.

Interesting Facts About Popcorn

America loves popcorn. We eat 16 billion quarts per year. Every man, woman and child enjoy 65 quarts of popcorn each. Popcorn is a whole grain snack with only 55 calories per cup. If you use an air popper it has 31 calories.

Zea Mays Everta is popcorn's scientific name. Popcorn is a member of the grass family. It is a type of maize or corn. There are 5 types of corn. They are Flour, Dent or Field, Flint, Sweet and popcorn. The moisture in the kernels makes it pop. That level of moisture is between 13 to 15%.

Popcorn comes in two different types. One type is Mushroom and the other is Snowflake. Most concession poppers use the Snowflake. The Snowflake pops out fluffier and looks better. Most candy makers use the Mushroom variety. This type holds the candy coating better. Popcorn comes in 700 varieties.

Kettle corn was first introduced in the early 1700's. The Settlers would pop the popcorn in large cast iron kettles. They would use rendered lard and whatever sweetener they had on hand. Many times it was molasses, honey or sugar cane.

The kettle corn that you see popped at fairs and farmers markets is one of the hottest ways to make money with popcorn. It has a very high profit margin and a very low overhead. You can usually recoup your initial investment in a few shows. Microwave popcorn was first discovered in 1945. Perry Spencer discovered that popcorn would pop when placed near a microwave. Mr. Spencer led the way to development of the microwave oven. Some of the oldest known popcorn was found in Bat cave in west New Mexico in 1948. The ears of popcorn were as small as a penny to over 2 inches long. Popcorn became very popular during the great depression in the 1890's. Popcorn was sold in bags for 5 to 10 cents each. Some street vendors would push their gas and steam powered poppers around following the crowds selling popcorn. Very few people could afford this luxury. People would start their own popcorn business to help their families during the lean years.

Popcorn sales dropped off when the T.V. became popular in the 1950's. Movie theater attendance dropped off too. The consumption of popcorn dropped too when the public started making popcorn at home. Home poppers were introduced in 1925.

January 19 is National Popcorn Day! October is National Popcorn Popping Month! Native Americans would pop their popcorn right on the cob. They would insert a spear through the cob and roast it over an open fire. The kernels would pop and stick right on the cob.

The English colonists ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was brought as a gift by the chief's brother. The colonists ate the popcorn with milk and sugar. This is the first known breakfast cereal.

Popcorn is listed as a sugar free snack by the American Dental Association. It is low in calories along with apples, cheese, pears, nuts and plain yogurt.

The American Diabetes Association uses popcorn as a bread exchange for weight control. Popcorn aids in digestion and provides the necessary roughage and fiber. This helps the overall health of the body. It is listed third on the 11 things that don't cause cancer. One cup of popcorn provides the 1.3 grams of dietary fiber needed.

The unpopped kernels are called "old maids" or "spinsters". Good popcorn should produce less than 2 percent of "old maids". Popcorn kernels will start popping at the temperature of 347 degrees. Popcorn can pop as high as 3 feet.

Popcorn has more phosphorus, protein, and iron than ice cream cone, pretzels, potato chips or soda crackers.

Popcorn is enjoyed in many different flavors in other parts of the world. Germany, Luxemburg, Switzerland and Belgium like their popcorn sweet. Americans love their popcorn with salt and butter and a host of sweet coatings. The Japanese eat their popcorn with seaweed or shrimp flavorings.

Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously

While owning a business is a serious manner, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget why you chose this path. Burnout comes at a high cost when you carry your livelihood, family, and employees on your back. You need to stay fresh and think creatively to maximize sales with the least amount of resistance.

In our industry, fun foods open up countless markets, interesting opportunities, and introduce us to extraordinary people. But just like others, there are budgets to meet and people to make happy. We are encouraged to find the fun in life and business.

That’s not to say that every day is a three-ring circus. To the contrary, we’re serious about making sure everyone else is having fun, too, and making money. And that is the crux of all business. People will only want to buy if they trust you believe in the products and want to make the sale.

So do what it takes. Blow off steam, play hooky for a day, or run with your dog in the park. Just learn to relax and find the fun in what you do. Your happiness will inspire confidence and catch on.

Need Help Finding Events to Work?

When you're a mobile concessionaire, it's important to get your schedule filled up with good, high traffic events. Do you know where to go and who to contact for events in your area? Over the past few years, the use of the Internet to find events has increased and the results available have improved dramatically too. Since the special events season is about to get started, we thought it would be helpful to post those links in one, central article this year so that our readers can reference them easily. Here's the list!

1. Soccer Tournament Directory - www.soccertournament.us Soccer tournaments are great events for all types of concessionaires!


2. SoftballTournaments.com - National Softball Tournament Directory. Again, softball tournaments draw large crowds of people who don't want to leave to get snacks (for fear of losing their parking space) so they will happily patronize your stand. Nothing beats shaved ice or a snow cone on a hot day at a tournament!


3. USCarnys.com - USCarny's does a great job of compiling events of all sorts by state. It's a great resource and will definitely become a favorite for you!

**The next 3 resources are very similar in nature. However, we like to list all 3 of them because at times, each of them will list an event unique just to that particular site.

1. FairsandFestivals.net


2. Festivals.com


3. FestivalNet.com - Festival Network Online offers you the ability to use their site for free, but limits some of the information you are able to view.

To get detailed information about particular events, you need to join their site using one of their membership packages. Our suggestion is to try the free approach at first and see if you think it is a viable website that will serve your needs. If so, go ahead and join. We have joined in the past and felt that it was worth it due to the events we found and participated in by using their website.

We hope you will find these links useful!