Sell More & Work Less - Now Available at Amazon

Sell More & Work Less: Web Selling Techniques Everyone Should Use. Sell More & Work Less will help business professionals quickly learn and apply many new web sales tips and techniques to improve their sales effectiveness, allowing for more free time and a better lifestyle. Simply said, allowing them to sell more and work less. The 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process facilitates the transition to a web based sales model and the greater profit potential, improved methods of selling and more flexible business and personal lifestyle this affords many salespeople and businesses, aspiring entrepreneurs and existing sole proprietors. Readers can replicate the 4-Phase Virtual Sales Process to create their own tailored sales process using the techniques explained in this web selling tips and techniques book. Blume’s web based sales model levels the selling field. It allows almost anyone or any business to more effectively sell against better-funded or better-known organizations, once they embrace a more web based approach to sales and marketing.

Sell More & Work Less is Blume’s second business book, following Your Virtual Success. His digital marketing companies, StartupSelling, Inc. and StartMarketingTech, are privately held, debt-free, self funded and completely virtual. They conduct all business remotely, rarely meeting prospects, clients, or contractors in person. During his 30-year career, Blume has worked for both boot-strapped and venture-backed firms. His methods have always yielded significant sales growth results in short time frames, including one stint which landed him on the INC 500 list two consecutive years. Blume was assisted by three “in the trenches” coauthors, Mike Lauducci, John Scranton and Andrew Blume.

Sell More & Work Less is now available on Amazon, the Kindle version is expected later in January. http://www.amazon.com/Sell-More-Work-Less-Techniques/dp/ …

For B2B Web Marketing go to www.StartMarketingTech. For Insurance Agency Marketing go to www.StartUpSelling.com.

Volvo S60 Delivered in Gothenburg Sweden

The Volvo S60 T6 is different from Volvo’s of the past, it has very sleek European lines, a sporty look, excellent acceleration (300HP) and provides a great ride. It boasts extremely comfortable ergonomic seats, great styling, a state of the art navigation system and all the options I required. The S60 T6 also came with a 5 year/50,000 mile full maintenance, bumper to bumper warranty, including oil changes, brakes, rotors, wiper blades, etc., ensuring a what I expect to be a maintenance free 5 year ownership at my mileage levels. When I compared the total price, after adding the options I selected, the Volvo came in comparably priced to the Infiniti and less than the Audi S4 or Lexus, which came as no surprise. To my surprise, however, Volvo said they would provide a complimentary trip to Sweden to pick up and use my new car. I was somewhat dubious about that last statement and researched several blogs on the subject.

According to my research and the DVD Volvo sent, the free trip included free airfare for two, 3 nights free hotel (3 nights for existing Volvo owners or 1 night for new owners), airport transfer to your hotel, hotel pickup to the Volvo delivery center, lunch and a tour of their factory, and use of your own Volvo for your vacation, including insurance and roadside assistance. Assuming the commercial accurately portrayed the trip, this appeared to be a really fun way to take another vacation abroad, compliments of Volvo.

A quick estimate of what type of value this might represent to a car buyer might look like this. Assuming airfare for two from Boston to Sweden costs at least $1,600, 3 nights hotel about $900, free hotel parking $100, use of the car for a week or more (at least $500), and the removal of the destination charge (about $800), I estimated the Volvo sponsored trip at approximately $4,000. Many people, including me, probably wonder if this was a shell game, with the price of the car inflated, to help subsidize the trip. However, the pre-negotiated pricing for the program included a discount off retail of about 7%, better than one could negotiate for a US based purchase. Though the free trip would not constitute a reason to buy the car, it’s a great perk if one was intending to do so in the first place, or if a would be purchaser was indecisive about which car manufacturer they preferred.

Beyond the economic incentives, it seemed like a great opportunity for a unique adventure, so I put down my deposit and embarked upon the Volvo Overseers Delivery Program journey. Next stop, Gothenburg, Sweden, the Volvo Factory Delivery Center.

A Predominately Positive Perspective

Overall, it was a fun, interesting and problem free trip, clearly a good experience from Volvo and one that I can recommend with a few notables to ensure informed consent. First, in the event you consider the Volvo Overseas Delivery Program, let me offer what I think is a truly valuable piece of advice. Purchase a Garmin that will work in Scandinavia, either before your trip or when you arrive in Gothenburg. It will be the best $100 investment you will make. Navigating from the Volvo delivery center back to the Radisson SAS hotel in downtown Gothenburg was likely similar to a foreigner navigating to downtown Boston from Waltham, Massachusetts. With so many one way streets, trolley traffic, pedestrians, congestion and cyclists, we would describe it as challenging. Once armed with the Garmin, however, navigation in Sweden and Denmark were accomplished with relative ease. The Garmin Nuvi allows users to change the settings into English or your language of choice. By the way, just in case you were paying attention to the introductory paragraph, I did order a state of the art navigation system with the car. And though this works splendidly in North America, it is not compatible with European or Scandinavian navigation systems (though I was recently told Scandinavian maps might be available for a fee).

Gothenburg Waterfront with the Windjammer Viking

We spent a few days in Gothenburg, an interesting and dynamic city and the second largest in Sweden. We walked throughout the city, toured the waterfront, checked out the 1907 windjammer Viking, jumped on a trolley to the fabulous botanical gardens located at the edge of the city and of course picked up our new Volvo at the Volvo Factory Delivery Center about 25 minutes from downtown Gothenburg. The experience at the delivery center was very positive. Volvo advertises that you will be treated like a King (or Queen), and shows a Volvo limousine picking up their new customers at the airport and at the hotel. We were picked up very promptly upon our arrival at the airport, and were transported with another couple in a new Volvo SUV to our hotel. The next morning we were picked up in a new Volvo sedan, and privately transported to the Volvo center. Though I can’t say we were treated like royalty or shuttled in a limo, the service was prompt, polite and professional.

At the delivery center, we arrived around 10:30am, and were politely informed there would be a wait. That said, Volvo did provide internet access and comfortable seating. Around 11:40am, our turn in the queue had arrived and we met with a Volvo representative who patiently explained the nuances of our car use in Sweden and Denmark, roadside assistance, insurance, etc. She then escorted us to our new car and reviewed all of the functions, from the radio, to the electronic parking brake to the location of the gas tank. We took a quick test drive on Volvo’s property and carefully parked the car in the Volvo lot. Just to be clear, Volvo is delivering your actual car, not a rental or substitute vehicle. This car is yours to use in Sweden and Europe and it will then be shipped back, and ultimately delivered to your Volvo dealership, in our case to a dealership in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The shipping process takes about six to eight weeks from Sweden to the East Coast. Shipping is free from Gothenburg, but if you drop your car off in a different location (Denmark or Germany for example), there are extra fees. We dropped our car off near Copenhagen, and were charged about $500 for shipping. This seemed very fair and a much better alternative than trying to loop around back to Gothenburg to drop off the car.

After a modest lunch promptly served by Volvo, we were ushered into a Disneyworld like tram, for the factory tour. This was a worthwhile expenditure of an hour, the tour is interesting, informative and impressive. Volvo whisked our group of about 20 people throughout their factory, showing everything from automated welding and assembly, to intricate hand assembly, explaining how the car moves from sheet metal to finished product on the line. Once we completed the tour, we navigated without use of a navigation system back to our hotel, minus a few wrong turns some trolley traffic challenges, we were able to valet park our vehicle at the Radisson SAS, our home for 4 days and 3 nights compliments of Volvo (new Volvo customers are provided with 1 night accommodation).

The next day, we departed Gothenburg, heading south toward Malmo. The little Garmin successfully navigated us through Welsingbord, Varborg, Lund and into Malmo, and did so admirably. Great sites along the route included the Varberg Fortress, Helsingborg Kärnan Tower, and Kulturen, a collection of over 30 buildings in the world’s second oldest open-air museum located in Lund. It was easy to traverse this section of Sweden, the road system is excellent and the driving is easy.

Open Air Museum in Lund

We arrived in Malmo, staying at the Renaissance Hotel in the middle of the old section of town, a bustling pedestrian friendly center offering a cadre of restaurants, alfresco dinning and interesting shops, just a few steps from our door. Notable sites in Malmo included Stortoget, Malmo’s city center square, Malmohus Castle and the fascinating Turning Torso Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Scandinavia.

Malmo's Turning Torso Tower

The Turning Torso is designed after a sculpture, and constructed with nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises. The highest segment is twisted ninety degrees clockwise relative to the ground floor segment. It’s hard to describe and truly interesting to see, a modest walk from downtown to the waterfront, and an opportunity to take in a great view of the Oresund Bridge. The Oresund Bridge connects Sweden and Denmark, and is the longest road and rail bridge in Europe, measuring 7,845 meters (25,738 feet) in length. That’s five miles from end to end, and though I’ve seen a myriad of measurements pertaining to the length of the Oresund, I can assure everyone of one thing, it’s a really long bridge!

It was reassuring to be in our all wheel drive vehicle when we traversed the windy Oresund to Copenhagen, a towering cable stayed bridge that actually ends in a tunnel under the seabed and emerges in Denmark. Copenhagen is a thriving, pedestrian and bicycle friendly metropolis filled with great architecture, museums, canals and the famous Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park and garden located in the middle of downtown Copenhagen. Tivoli opened in 1843 and is the second oldest amusement park in the world.

Tivoli in downtown Copenhagen

Because Copenhagen is so easy to walk around and offers great public transit, the Volvo stayed in the Marriott garage until we headed north to the regal Fredericksborg Castle and gardens, a great destination, similar albeit smaller in perspective to Versailles or Peterhof. The castle was roughly on the way toward our ultimate drop off point, a Volvo dealership north of Copenhagen, where we turned in the car for return shipment to Wellesley, Massachusetts. How difficult was that process? I’d estimate about 10 minutes plus a quick ride to the train station. The modern express train back to Copenhagen was only twenty minutes, with the balance of our trip spent in Copenhagen proper.

Shipping and Handling

The Atlantic Concert as it approaches the Eastern US

The Volvo S60 had an interesting return trip home. It left Copenhagen on the back of a truck and was shipped to Gothenburg, Sweden. In Gothenburg, it was loaded onto the Atlantic Concert, a cargo ship built in 1984, measuring 291 meters in length and 32 meters in width, weighing in at

The Atlantic Concert at Port In NJ

51,648 tons. Once loaded, I was notified of its departure, and through a website and Google maps was able to track the ship’s progress across the Atlantic to the docks on the shores of New Jersey. It passed through customs and a few weeks later, it was parked in my garage.

Nominal Negatives

Other than the initial navigation challenge, there were a couple of minor issues with the trip. One issue related to the routing from Boston to Gothenburg. Since Volvo partners with SAS (Scandinavian Airlines), and they don’t fly from Boston, our outbound routing was Boston to Washington to Copenhagen and finally to Gothenburg (or we could have chosen New York or Chicago). This resulted in a three flight segment routing to arrive in Gotherburg, whereas two would have been much better (Boston to Copenhagen to Gothenburg for example). Routing was luck of the draw, if you live in New York for example, you would be able to accomplish this with one connection. Our return was from Copenhagen since we drove from Gothenburg to Denmark, resulted in good routing with only one stop in Washington Dulles.

It is important to mention that SAS has four classes of service: First Class, Business Class, Economy Plus, and Economy. Though the SAS flight attendants were very courteous and accommodating, the economy class was tight, with narrow seats and limited leg room. Fortunately, on the return trip, SAS was gracious enough to move us to Economy Plus, dramatically more comfortable than economy.

Conclusion

If you like to travel and are considering a Volvo or comparable vehicle, the Volvo Overseas Delivery Program offers a great experience and an excellent value. Everyone we met in Sweden and Denmark spoke English, some were so conversant we were uncertain if they were truly indigenous to the area. Sweden and Denmark struck us as clean, friendly, and environmentally proactive. We witnessed a wealth of wind turbines (we estimated about 25 wind turbines across Copenhagen’s waterfront) and a bevy of bike lanes with a literal commuter rush of work bound bicyclists.

Copenhagen

If you intend to travel to Scandinavia, summer is advisable from my perspective, as it resides pretty far north and the climate is chilly, even in the summer. During our 10 day stretch, the weather was fairly good with several sunny days, intermingled with a fair share of clouds and rain. My take on the entire experience was very positive and in my opinion, Volvo delivered as promised.

Alan Blume is the author of two books, Sell More & Work Less and Your Virtual Success. He is the founder and CEO of StartUpSelling, Inc. and StartMarketingTech, which help businesses with web marketing, social media marketing, SEO, lead generation, appointment setting, elevator and telephone pitches, web site design, client testimonials, company video, branding and innovative entrepreneurial marketing and sales concepts. StartUpSelling offers unique B2B sales and marketing tools like the Prospect Scorecard ProspectScorecard.com. For more information go to: StartUpSelling  or StartMarketingTech. Read Your Virtual Success available from Amazon or Sell More & Work Less scheduled for release in December 2012.

No reprints, republishing, re-posting or reuse without attribution and live HTML links back to one of the four links in the last paragraph.

Or you can visit it at: http://www.startupselling.com/skype.html

Skype recorded video interviews provide an efficient and effective way for B2B businesses (insurance agencies, consulting firms, property management companies, financial planners, law firms, etc.) to add website video and YouTube video for improved SEO and Social Media Marketing. Website Video, like Recorded Skype Interviews, is an extremely important component of your overall B2B web marketing strategy.

• Skype Interview Technology
• Website Video Marketing
• YouTube Content Development
• 3X Value for Every Skype Video
• Video as a Closing Tool
• Leveraging Video for SEO

Title:      Skype Interviews for Effective Video Marketing

Date:     Thursday, August 18, 2011

Time:     12:00 PM – 12:30 PM EDT

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/134912665

Watch a sample interview on YouTube:

Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LgnPWU-4sc

1. Professional Headline – Create a professional headline that explains your expertise and is keyword friendly. For example, I am an “Insurance Agency Marketing Expert” rather than a “Business Development Manager.”
2. Complete Education & Experience – Process can be accelerated by uploading a current resume from a Word document.
3. Request Recommendations – Request a minimum of 3 recommendations. We suggest a client, a colleague and someone else. Recommendations for previous work are also powerful.
4. Include Website Links – Add links to your website, your blog, and a personal website (if possible).
5. Integrate Twitter Feed – If you are using Twitter, add your Twitter ID.
6. Summary – Create a 1-2 paragraph professional summary that explains what you do and why it is important. Make sure to include your areas of expertise and leverage your SEO keywords.
7. Specialties – A short list of specialties that should look very much like your Top 3 SEO keyword phrases.
8. Blog Application – Under the “Applications” menu, select “Get More Applications.” Choose the WordPress or Blog Link application and enter the blog address. Select the options to display the blog on your homepage and profile.
9. Other Application(s) – If possible add 1-2 more applications that you feel would be of interest.
10. Make Regular Updates – Post regular profile updates. What you are working on, webinar invites, blog links and announcements are all great updates. Make sure to include your SEO keywords in the updates as well.

For more information on B2B Web Marketing, visit http://www.startmarketingtech.com/ or for insurance agency marketing http://www.startupselling.com/insurance-agency-marketing.html

These interviews are fast and efficient, and much easier for the subject matter expert since their responses are more extemporaneous than scripted. Skype does not offer a record function, this must be done utilizing an independent application. We welcome any feedback and will be measuring the SEO results based on the length of interview and number of times viewed. For more information go to:

http://www.startupselling.com/insurance-agency-marketing.html

Skype recorded video interviews provide a better method for B2B businesses (insurance agencies, consulting firms, property management companies, financial planners, law firms, etc.) to add website video and YouTube video for improved SEO and Social Media Marketing. With the recent search engine algorithm shifts, video is an extremely important component of your overall web marketing strategy.

When you type Tubely into a Google search box, the fourth result is: “There is a program called TUBELY with a gmail address that invades …”.  This listing leads us to a forum with 11 posts, the first one is listed below:

Date: Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 4:08 PM: To automatically grab peoples contact folder without telling them, and auto send an email as if the individual truly wanted to invite someone is horrible. I am going to contact Google about your (Tubely) scam/spam and ask them to disable you!

Google’s results continue with complaints and accusations about Tubely, the 5th through 10th results are all negative, accusing Tubely of spamming, scamming, stealing and hijacking. My wife agrees and spent a couple of hours responding to her friends and colleagues who received an unsolicited Tubely invitation from her.  I think many would agree that Tubely is in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act. The first three rules of the CAN-SPAM Act: 1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. 2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. 3. Identify the message as an ad. In this bloggers opinion, Tubley is repeatedly violating the CAN-SPAM Act.

Of course this is merely a legal issue. There are boatloads of ethical and professional issues too. When a company hijacks an entire address book and sends out unsolicited emails, we must be dealing with the low end of the gene pool, or perhaps in this case, the low end of the gene tube. I went to the Tubely website but the Contact Us link does not work (what a surprise). There is no phone number to call (another shocker). But after a few minutes, I was able to find a company name. Astute Software, 502, Sampada, Bangur Nagar, Goregaon (West), Mumbai – 400 090,  Maharashtra, India.

On the Tubely privacy policy tab, visitors are instructed to contact Astute Software at the address noted above. If they listed a phone number or email address, I would have contacted them.  What is the relationship between Astute Software and Tubely? “Astute Software specializes in offshore Development of digital solutions and software applications.” After a little research, it appears that Astute Software is the publisher of Tubely, as they advertise “Tubely free video sharing 1.0 download by Astute Software” on several sites.

After navigating to every Tubely tab, I was able to find one email. The email is: business@tubely.com. I’ll be sending Tubely an email today, and it will be clearly marked, non-viral in  nature, and candid. In this email I intend to offer my opinion of Tubely’s tactics: Tubely Viral, Tubely Spam, Tubely Unethical, Tubely Unprofessional, Tubely Spyware. Perhaps a new tagline might help Tubely; Tubely, Both Viral and Vile.