ValueSelling Associates, in Rancho Santa Fe, California, USA, is a sponsor of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world’s top sales awards and customer service awards. Find out how to enter the 2015 competition here.

The following article by Julie Thomas, CEO of ValueSelling, was first featured on the ValueSelling Associates Blog in Jul. (You can also read about this year’s successful salespeople in the Sales Individual Awards categories on the Stevie Awards Sales & Customer Service website.)

It’s a commonly accepted notion that buyers often don’t like salespeople. It’s your job to overcome that initial barrier by recognizing that a successful sales relationship hinges on your personal relationship with the customer.

Trust and rapport are essential in encouraging potential buyers to share their challenges and allow you to explore different solutions. People buy from people, so a sales relationship becomes more difficult if two people can’t communicate effectively.

The greater the trust and rapport, the easier it is to get the client to share their perspective, including their personal motivations, and to listen to how your products can create value for them.

Selling Is a Multilevel Communication Process

We trust people who appear to have the same model of the world as we do. We trust people who understand our problems. Whether you are building trust and rapport, persuading, or negotiating, selling is a multilevel communication process.

But active listening is a difficult skill to practice. We are often more comfortable talking and tend to believe that the best way to sell is to make a perfect presentation. Even when we aren’t talking, we are thinking about what we’re going to say next. Every moment spent thinking is one spent not listening. We run the risk of missing buying clues or critical information. We are in danger of missing lost opportunities.

Active listeners always ask themselves these questions:

• Did I hear what they said?
• Do I understand what they said?

5 tips for honing your active listening skills:

• Give your full and undivided attention to the person who is speaking and, whenever possible, make eye contact.

• If you are speaking with someone on the phone or VoIP, avoid distractions and the temptation to multi-task by emailing or texting. The person on the other end of the line can always tell!

• Don’t interrupt the speaker.  No one appreciates being interrupted; when you interrupt someone, you are sending the following message:  “What I have to say is more important than what you are already saying.”  Pause to gather your thoughts and respond thoughtfully. Pay attention to any lag time or delay if you’re using Skype and time your responses accordingly.

• Clarify and confirm. Use breaks in the conversation to confirm what you heard and clarify what you understood. Trust and rapport are built through this process. Confirmation is critical to demonstrate your listening skills and abilities.  Asking follow-up questions and testing your understanding are very powerful and simple ways to prove you are listening.

• Provide nonverbal feedback. If you are having a conversation in person, then nodding, appropriate facial expressions, and occasional verbal affirmations reassure the person you’re speaking with that you are actively listening.

While speaking well is important, our ability to listen, learn, and understand is essential. Active listening can be practiced on anyone, anywhere in an organization. It’s really about the quality of the conversations you have. The better the questions you ask, the better the answers. The more you listen to the answers, the better the conversation, and the more effective you will be as a sales professional.

About Julie Thomas

Julie Thomas, President and CEO of ValueSelling Associates, is a noted speaker, author, and consultant. In a career spanning more than 24 years, she credits her mastery of the ValueSelling Framework® for her own meteoric rise through the ranks of sales, sales management, and corporate leadership positions.

Julie began her career at Gartner Group. In 1999, she became Vice President of Gartner’s Sales Training for the Americas, which included successfully managing the training of new hires in the ValueSelling process.  In 2003, Julie acquired ValueSelling Associates with the support of ValueSelling CEO and co-founder Lloyd Sappington. Since then, Julie has led the company to become an industry leader in competency- and process-based training for escalating sales performance.

Julie is a sought-after speaker at industry events such as the Selling Power Sales Leadership Conferences. She is a guest lecturer at both Babson University and the University of Michigan. In addition, Julie is on the advisory board of the eWomenNetwork Foundation Advisory Council and is heavily involved in her local public schools as well as the San Diego Children’s Hospital Auxiliary.

She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

About ValueSelling Associates

ValueSelling Associates, based in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, is the creator of the Value Selling Framework®, the sales methodology preferred by sales executives around the globe. Since 1991, ValueSelling Associates has helped thousands of sales professionals increase their sales productivity. Offering customized training to FORTUNE 1000 companies, mid-sized businesses, to early stage startup organizations, ValueSelling Associates’ proprietary sales training tools and consulting services deliver measurable results. Clients turn to the experts at ValueSelling Associates for classroom and online training and consulting services that yield immediate impact, repeatable strategies, and sustainable results to sales productivity.  For more information, go to www.valueselling.com

Once a month in this space we highlight apps and websites that we think might help to make your workday a bit more productive or enjoyable.  Here are this month's suggestions.

Repic

Get early access to this new app that lets you see people's reactions to photos you send to them.

Dragon Dictation

An app that allows you to speak and instantly see the text transcription for everything from email messages to blog posts on your iPad™, iPhone™ or iPod touch™. FREE

eFax

The fax may become a popular tool again with this app which enables fax-sending from your iPad, iPhone or Android.  From $12.95.

SugarSync

An app that allows users to share and continuously back up files in real time, providing access to files and folders anytime, anywhere, from any PC, Mac, iOS, or Android device. From $18.95.

Have a favorite app, blog, or website? Nominate it for our app awards or website awards in the Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

Rockwell Automation in Singapore won a Silver Stevie Award in the Company of the Year Awards categories of the 2014 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.  (The 2015 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards will begin accepting entries this September from organizations through throughout the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region. Get your entry kit here.)

Rockwell Automation (RA) is the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information. Its Asia Pacific Business Center (APBC) in Singapore serves as the company’s global development headquarters

We asked Co Gia Nguyen, APBC’s Vice President & General Manager, what winning a Silver Stevie at the 2014 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards had meant to him and his team.

“Winning this award is a testament to the effectiveness of the Rockwell Production System. This allows our leaders and employees to work together efficiently, achieving process and production excellence in our manufacturing facilities to better fulfill our customers’ needs,” he told us. “It also serves as a well-earned recognition and appreciation of our team of research and development, engineering, and manufacturing experts at APBC.”

Delivering Results

The business center was established in November 2005. Currently over 600 employees work at APBC on the following RA automation-control product lines: CompactLogix™; SLC™; Distributed Input/Output; Micro Controllers; PanelView™ Component; and Component Drives.

Nguyen praised the hard work of his team. “The team has worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to help the company leverage its end-to-end integrated supply-chain-management process,” he told us. “This award acknowledges Rockwell Automation’s ability to deliver innovative products that command customer loyalty and drive actions, results, and accountability for a competitive edge.”

Positive Brand Awareness

In addition, Rockwell Automation wrote and distributed a press release announcing their win. Nguyen told us that it received “significant coverage in many of the top-tier industry publications across Asia—driving positive brand awareness among our target audience.”

Continued Nguyen: “The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards have provided a platform for good exposure for Rockwell Automation’s brand—not only with the panel of judges and other Stevie Awards winners, but also among our partners and customers, thanks to the media coverage we gleaned through the prestige attached to the awards in the U.S. We believe that by building more brand awareness of the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the competition’s clout in this region will grow incrementally, adding greater benefit to companies in this region.”

Looking to the Future

The APBC’s research and development, engineering, and manufacturing experts are conveniently located near machine builders in Asia-Pacific, a market vital to RA’s growth.

We asked Nguyen what new technologies he thought would most affect his customers in the future.

"Rockwell Automation’s vision is to leverage technology to transcend industrial business barriers and add value to the connected enterprise, as well as to the industrial ecosystem," he told us. “New commercial technologies will seamlessly connect people, processes, devices, and data so industrial operations can be integrated, optimized, collaborative, sustainable, and secure.

“The evolution of a smart, Internet-enabled architecture that transforms data into practical knowledge will lead to sustainable competitive differentiation with enhanced plants and supply networks.”

Improved Operations

Nguyen explained that, in a connected enterprise, plant personnel could capitalize on the business value of possessing the right information at the right time with visibility into production data and supply-chain information.

“The convergence of new technologies that securely connect plant information with enterprise IT systems results in greater productivity, better utilization of assets, and improved decision making,” he added. “By bridging the gap between production and enterprise networks, Rockwell Automation shows how the connected enterprise enjoys intuitive and improved operations, as well as a lower total cost of ownership.”

A More Secure Environment

Nguyen noted that as the historical disconnect between enterprise and production networks is bridged, manufacturers, producers, and utilities will need to understand potential security risks and best practices for developing a more secure environment. As he put it: “Rockwell Automation helps companies protect their industrial control and information systems with effective security strategies.”

Sustainability

With more industrial firms seeking sustainability, automated real-time reporting and monitoring allows on-demand viewing of data that can be transformed into actionable information. “With an eye on energy savings, Rockwell Automation can help operations managers and business leaders design, monitor, and control their energy usage,” concludes Nguyen.

About Co Gia Nguyen

Co Nguyen is Vice President and General Manager of the Rockwell Automation (RA) Asia Pacific Business Center.  He is the head of this legal entity located in Singapore and is responsible for its profit/loss and for managing all relationships and interactions with the Singapore government and other related agencies.

Nguyen joined Rockwell Automation in October 2007. Prior to accepting his current position in October 2010, he was the Business Director responsible for the Distributed Input/Output and Small Controller businesses located in Singapore.

Nguyen has had extensive general management, product development, operations, and account management experiences and has worked for multi-national companies such as Johnson Electric, Honeywell, General Electric, AVX Tantalum and ITT Cannon.  Nguyen also had strong multi-cultural experiences having lived and worked in the United States, Brazil, and Hong Kong. 

Nguyen received his Bachelor of Science, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

About Rockwell Automation

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, makes its customers more productive and the world more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation employs about 22,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.

The National Field Support division of TELUS Communications in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, won the Gold Stevie for Support Department of the Year in the Support Awards categories of The 2013 International Business Awards.

(The 2014 International Business Awards is still accepting entries.  Review the entry kit here.)

According to Mark Klotz, Director of TELUS Communications’ National Field Support, winning a Stevie Award represented an international acknowledgement of his team’s formidable accomplishments, and has contributed to further success in three areas. “First, the team achieved an all-time high team-engagement score, 7% above the ‘best employer’ index that we benchmark ourselves against,” Mark reported.

“Secondly, it elevated our already amazing culture to a level where front-line agents are driving unprecedented levels of continuous improvement. Lastly, it greatly benefited our customers, because the hope of being recognized by the Stevie Awards for a second year in a row has driven my team’s desire to push the envelope on all our key metrics.”

Providing Technical Support
The TELUS National Field Support (NFS) department trains specialists that capture and resolve anomalies that prevent orders from automatically provisioning in the myriad of complex systems.  They repair these anomalies to meet the customer needs prior to their due date.

These specialists also provide technical support to field technicians by aiding the installation and repair of TELUS products and services for consumer and small business markets in a timely and responsive manner.

The Pressures of Constant Change

Communications service providers are under continual pressure to optimize operational costs, gain agility, and offer superior services to customers. The business of providing voice, data, and TV services requires specialized skills on advanced provisioning systems in order to provide customers with the best possible service in a highly competitive telecommunications industry.

Making Life Simpler for the Customer
The constant evolution of technologies also puts pressure on the team to proactively evolve their skill sets. This evolution has enabled NFS to remain the support team of choice.

We asked Mark what changes in technology he thought would most affect telecommunications customers in the future.

“I see the integration of services, applications, and content as one of the biggest changes coming down the pike,” Mark observed. “This will allow customers to take advantage of more flexible and personalized services and will make their lives simpler than ever before.”

Driving Continuous Improvement

Setting extremely high standards has enabled the National Field Support Department to answer 91% of customer calls within 20 seconds with an average speed of 15 seconds. All calls are directed to a live agent, and 99.6% of all proactively resolved orders meet the service level agreements, demonstrating the TELUS commitment to the customer. Any orders not meeting the level required are handled in real-time by an agent to maintain customer commitment.

As Mark puts it: “The high quality training, the 365-days/year availability, the stringent service level agreements, and the ‘no phone call goes to voice mail’ policy have made the NFS team into a premier support team.”

Enhancing the Customer Experience
Mark reports that his team continues to challenge the status quo and bring forward innovative ideas to help enhance the customer experience. Says Mark: “Despite the unremitting evolution of technologies and processes, the team continues to deliver high levels of success.”

Staying Organized
Mark’s favorite business app is Evernote. “It helps me stay organized using ‘notebooks’, which can include images, photos, and notes,” he told us. “I can seamlessly sync Evernote on my Windows, iOS, and Android devices. There are also several other useful apps that integrate easily into Evernote.”

Inspired By Change

Mark is excited about the future. “The constant pace of change and emergence of new technologies inspires me every day,” he told us. “With that change comes the challenge to constantly prepare and anticipate methods and processes to integrate new technologies with existing ones while making it seamless and transparent for our customers.”

About Mark Klotz:
Mark Klotz has led the National Field Support team through the optimization of office locations and the implementation and integration of the outsourced portion of the team. He is the department’s biggest advocate of change and has instilled within his leadership team a culture of constant evolution.  His thought-provoking challenges continue to raise the bar for the department. Mark brings to the team experience from Information Services, and from Consumer and Business Marketing, Marketing Communications, Channel Management, Strategic Planning, Sales Incentive Management, and Call Center Operations.

About TELUS:
TELUS is Canada’s fastest-growing national telecommunications company, with $11.4 billion of annual revenue and 13.3 million customer connections. In support of its philosophy to “give where we live,” TELUS, its team members, and its retirees have contributed more than $350 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 5.4 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. TELUS was honored to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

Today we've opened voting for the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, a feature of The American Business Awards in which the general public can vote for their favorite new products and services. 

Voting is now open at http://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com

Voting concludes on 11:59 pm on Friday, August 8. The winners of the crystal People's Choice Stevie Awards will be announced the week before the September 12 awards banquet in San Francisco, California and presented their awards at the event.

There are 42 categories in which the general public can vote for their favorite new products and services of the year. Some of the categories this year include:

Business-to-Business Products
Consumer Electronics
Health & Pharmaceutical Products
Software - Cloud Infrastructure
Software - Web Services
Business-to-Business Services
Consumer Products
Financial Services
Media & Entertainment
Software - Collaboration/Social
Software - Relationship Mgmt
Telecommunications Products
Transportation

Anyone can vote one time in any or all of the 42 categories.

Make your voice heard, vote now at http://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com

Melissa Sones Consulting in New York, New York, won a Grand Stevie Award in the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the world's premier business awards program for women.  The 2014 Stevie Awards for Women in Business is now accepting entries, with a July 23 early-bird deadline.  Review the entry kit here.

This past November, Grand Stevie Award trophies were presented for the first time in the Stevie Awards for Women in Business to the five organizations that submitted the best body of entries to the competition.  Also a first, the name at the top of that list was not for an individual or company that had been a winner: it went to Melissa Sones Consulting, which had successfully entered several of its clients in the competition.  

We asked Melissa for some insight on this success.  What, for example, did she tell her clients were the most important reasons for entering a professional awards competition such as the Stevie Awards for Women in Business? 

“First, I tell clients or potential clients that awards marketing is the number one form of marketing in the world,” explained Melissa. “Just look around you: car companies run TV commercials noting that they are number one on J.D. Power and Associates; others on TV say they are topping Angie’s List. There are many examples.

The Power of Awards

“Second, I tell them I have had personal experience with the power of awards. I won a major award years ago and it changed my life and brought opportunities my way that might not otherwise have come. In my experience winning awards has worked, so I encourage my clients to win awards themselves so that they can do the same for their businesses, ultimately attracting lots more business.

The Thrill of Winning

“Reason number three is the awards ceremony itself.  While I focus on the applications and the actual winning—so far, 99% of those we have entered for major business awards have won something—getting up in front of a large audience comprising a wide range of business owners is a thrill. That’s why I took a table at the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women In Business Awards and encouraged my clients to come. Four of them won Gold Stevies, and it was very exciting!

“A fourth reason is that I want my clients to have a marketing tool that they can use over and over again. Win once and you can put it out there forever. I love that, and it’s effective.

Value for Money

“Finally, there is the cost. As a major marketing tool for a company of any size from sole proprietor to corporation, awards marketing is extremely affordable—a big bang for your buck, as they say. Pay a very affordable fee and we work to help you win. We are also “winner spotters,” so if we believe you can win, you usually do.”

Winning a Grand Award

We asked Melissa what winning a Grand Award at the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women in Business had meant to her.

“I was surprised when I won!” she told us. “It meant that the focus of my company–the only awards consulting company of its kind in the U.S.—is working.”

Additionally, Melissa told us that her awards consulting company does more work with the Stevie Awards than with any other awards competitions.  As she puts it: “Everything about it makes sense for the many businesses I work with. The applications themselves allow for creativity without being too time-consuming; the team at the Stevies is available whenever I need help, such as when filing an application or following up on a trophy order; and the awards have names or titles that I happen to like from a marketing standpoint.  Winning a Women in Business Award or an American Business Award or an International Business Award appeals to my clients, most of whom have come back for more awards, with the Stevie Awards for Women In Business at the top of the list so far!

Living in Integrity

Melissa has been a professional writer her entire adult life, and running a marketing awards company incorporates that.  As she told us: “I have always done exactly what I want to do ONLY if what I want is in my Integrity, no matter what, and I continue to do that. The latter is part of Living In Integrity.”

Melissa is certainly providing a service to others, as her achievements testify.

About Melissa Sones

Melissa Sones is a seasoned, results-focused communications and media relations consultant and writer in the lifestyle arena. Her clients include companies in fashion, beauty, food and restaurants, consumer products, public relations, health, international investment banking, retail, and family publishing.

Known for her corporate seminars on "The Art of Pitching" as it relates to lifestyle, Melissa is a former columnist for Food & Wine; the former beauty editor at Self magazine; fashion features editor (and member of the founding team) of Mirabella; fashion critic for the New York Post; and fashion editor for United Press International. She has been a regular contributor to Glamour and her pieces have appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, and Redbook, among others. She was also a contributor to the Zagat Guide on Shopping. She is the author of Getting into Fashion, A Career Guide (Ballantine) and Full Frontal Fashion: Never Worry Again About What To Wear (Plume/Penguin Group), which was featured in People Stylewatch, on The View, and in other national publications. She has been quoted on lifestyle in O, The Oprah Magazine and Real Simple. Her company specializes in creative thinking and knowing what's coming down the pike before others do. The New York Times featured the company’s creative approach in a 2009 article. In 2013, Melissa Sones chose to make awards and awards marketing the main focus of her company.

About Melissa Sones Consulting

Melissa Sones Consulting (MSC) is an awards consulting company that helps individuals and businesses win the top national and international awards—with a special emphasis on business awards. 99% of the companies MSC has entered for a top business award have won something. If you want to win, you want to work with MSC. For more information, go to www.melissasonesconsulting.com.

Learn all about the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the world's top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, and organizations they run at www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Yesterday was the final entry deadline for the 11^th annual International Business Awards, the world’s top business awards program.

By popular demand, we have decided to universally extend the final entry deadline through Wednesday, July 9.  No additional late fees or penalties will be required, and late entries will not be penalized in any way in the judging process.

GET THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

The IBAs typically receive nominations from organizations in more than 50 nations and territories and are the world’s only completely international business awards competition. All organizations and individuals worldwide are eligible to submit entries.

This business awards program features a wide range of categories to recognize achievement in every aspect of the workplace, including

• Customer Service Awards
• Company/Organization Awards
• Creative Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Management Awards
• Marketing Awards Categories
• New Product Awards
• Corporate Communications, IR, and PR Awards
• Support Awards 
• Web Site Awards, Smartphone and Tablet App, and other media awards

See the full list of International Business Awards categories.

Nominations should cite achievements since January 1 2013. There is no eligibility timeframe for app and web site entries - it does not matter when they were first published.

Winners of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards will be announced on August 13, and the winners celebrated at a gala banquet at the Westin Vendome Hotel in Paris, France on October 10.

Do not hesitate to contact us with your questions about how to participate in The 2014 International Business Awards.

The first of two awards banquets for The 2014 (12th Annual) American Business Awards, the premier business awards programs in the U.S.A., will be staged next Friday, June 13 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago.

* Get your tickets here

* Reserve guest rooms at the Fairmont Hotel here

The customer service, human resources, live events, publications, public relations & corporate communications, support and video awards categories, and selected categories for company/organization, management, and marketing, will be presented in Chicago next Friday.

The app, IT, new product and service, and website awards categories, and other selected categories for company/organization, management, and marketing, will be presented at a second event on September 12 in San Francisco.

So who's coming to the gala in Chicago next week?  Here's a current list of the organizations who've already confirmed their attendance.

7-Eleven
97th Floor
AAA Auto Club Group
ABM Franchising Group
AccountingDepartment.com
Acorda Therapeutics
Adconion Direct
AECOM
AHC
All Florida Paper, Inc.
AMD
American Medical Response
American Solar Direct
AT&T
Avention
BackBay Communications
Bankers Warranty Group/Bankers Financial Corp
BDS Marketing, Inc.
Benefitmall
Best Doctors, Inc.
Bloom Health
Bloomin' Brands
BMO Capital Markets
Borro
Capital One ShareBuilder
Cars.com
Checkers & Rally's Restaurants
Cisco Systems
Citrix Systems
Cub Cadet
CyraCom International, Inc.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
Dean Evans and Associates
Digital Grin Communications
Diligent Board Member Services
Echelon Design, Inc.
Electric Insurance Company
Empire Today
Endurance
Engility
EPS Financial
Experian Marketing Services
Extraordinary Events
Fazoli's Restaurants
FBMC Benefits Management
Fiksu
FleishmanHillard (for AT&T)
Fora Financial
Google, Inc.
Graebel Companies, Inc.
Grand Canyon University
Grass Roots Meetings & Events, Inc.
Grow Marketing
Hamilton Jewelers
HighPoint Global
Home Instead Senior Care
HRsmart
Hyatt Legal Plans
Hyundai Motor America
IgnitionOne
Information Builders
Insperity
Integral Ad Science
InVNT
Isagenix
Kowa Pharmaceuticals
L.C. Williams & Associates
Level 3 Communications, LLC
Locus Telecommunications, Inc.
Lyris
Makovsky Integrated Communications
MarketBridge
Marriott Vacations Worldwide
MassMutual Financial Group
mBlox
Medtech
Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
Minacs Marketing Solutions
Monitronics
MOSAIC Rehabilitation, Inc.
Move Management, Inc.
MWW
Nongshim America
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION
Omnitracs, LLC
One Eighty
Oswego Community Unit School District 308
Oxford City Football Club, Inc.
Pairelations, LLC
Pepco Holdings, Inc.
Petplan
PetRays / CardioVet
PrintingForLess.com
ProcessPro
Quality Systems, Inc.
Realityworks, Inc.
Redbud Financial Group
Renters Warehouse
Roof Diagnostics Solar
Roth Staffing Companies, L.P.
Ryan, LLC
Saatchi and Saatchi
SCRA
Sentient Interactive
Sentric, Inc.
SignUpGenius
SingleHop
Slack and Company
Snowbound Software
Squaremouth
Squarespace
Stratus Interactive
SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Tallie
TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES
TechnologyAdvice
Teletrac, Inc.
Terapeak
The 5th Avenue Theatre
The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
The Remi Group, LLC
The Webster Group
TIAA-CREF
Trex Company
Trupanion
U.S. Green Building Council
UAE Embassy - Consulate Division
UAE Embassy - Police Division
USHEALTH Advisors
Utah Basement Kitchen & Bath
Velie Law Firm
Virtusa Corporation
Washington Street Properties
Wells Fargo Bank
Wheels, Inc.
World Water Works, Inc.
Xcelus
Yext (Representing Citibank)

Want to network with this impressive group of organizations? Get your tickets here.

Janine Popick is CEO & Founder of VerticalResponse in San Francisco, California, USA, and the winner of a Gold Stevie Award for Female Executive of the Year-Business Services (up to 2,500 Employees) in the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

The 2014 Stevie Awards for Women in Business competition is now open.  The early-bird entry deadline is July 23.  GET THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

“How do I build or get an email marketing list?” As the leader of an email marketing software company for the last 13 years that’s been the most common question I’ve heard whenever I’ve talked to small businesses.

I’m also often asked if it’s okay to use a purchased, rented, or scraped email list.

My answer? Nope. Nada. Not so much. There are no shortcuts to growing an engaged and loyal base of subscribers, fans, and followers.

In reality, rather than get you the results you want, that purchased list could tarnish your relationship with your recipients—not a great way to start out.

So, how do you grow a list with engaged subscribers who want to hear from your business? I have five sure-fire ways, so read on!

1. Offer Value

In exchange for giving you their email address, subscribers expect to get something of value. Whether it’s a discount, exclusive deal, advance access, tips, how-tos, advice, or something else, make sure the value is stated on your email sign-up form.

2. Give ’Em a Sneak Peek

You can give folks a sneak peek of what they’ll get by joining your email list. How? By providing tangible examples of your emails, newsletters, and invitations right on your website. This gives them a chance to “try before they subscribe.”

At VerticalResponse, we archive our weekly VR Buzz e-newsletter so folks can preview what they’ll see before they hand over their email addresses. Also, once they’re a subscriber, if they happen to miss a newsletter, they always have easy access to it.

3. Subscribe (Opt-in) Everywhere

Sending emails to your subscribers is all based on getting their permission first. Here’s where your “join my list” form—also called an opt-in form—comes into play. An opt-in form is priceless because, when people willingly give you their email addresses, they’re saying they want to hear from you. And by getting opt-in permission, you build a relationship and gain trust. It’s a win-win for both parties.

Tip: Make sure you keep your forms short, and easy.  Also, give folks the opportunity to sign up whenever they contact or interact with your business, including from multiple pages on your website (homepage, contact page, pricing page, etc.), your blog, your Facebook profile, transactional emails such as receipts and invoices, and at events or tradeshows.

4. Get Them to Pass It On

The ability to forward an email to a friend seems to have been around since the dawn of email marketing (trust me, I was there), but it’s amazing how many people still don’t include the forwarding ability in their emails.  This is a missed opportunity, especially now that people are totally accustomed to sharing any messages that they think friends or co-workers might get value from or enjoy.

Encourage the forward by saying something like: “Share this email with friends you think might enjoy it!” All email service providers should allow you to insert a forward to a friend link very easily when you create your email. The bonus is that an email service will usually include an option to sign up for a mailing list in these forwarded emails, and that will add to list growth!

5. (Social) Sharing is Caring

Make sure that every email you send can be shared by your current subscribers on their social media networks. Most email service providers let you include social media buttons in your emails that allow recipients to share your message on Facebook and Twitter.  Reporting and tracking will allow you to see how many people are sharing your messages.

There you have it:  Five sure-fire (and easy) ways to grow your email list. Have any to add to my list? Share them in the comments!

Did you enjoy this post? If so, sign up for the free VR Buzz weekly newsletter and check out the VerticalResponse Marketing Blog.

About Janine Popick
Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse, a provider of online marketing tools for small businesses that include email marketing and social media marketing. Janine brings over 20 years of experience leading direct and Internet marketing programs for some of the biggest brands in technology and entertainment.

About VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse Inc., a subsidiary of Deluxe Corporation, provides a full suite of online marketing tools to help small businesses connect with their customers on email, social media, mobile, and more. More than 1 million users worldwide have relied on the VerticalResponse platform to easily create, manage, and analyze their own marketing campaigns, all from a single account. For more information visit www.verticalresponse.com, or connect on Twitter and Facebook.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards gala awards banquet took place this past Friday in Seoul, South Korea where five Grand Stevie Award winners were announced along with Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie winners.

The Grand Stevies were conferred upon the five highest-scoring Gold Stevie Award-winning entries from the five nations that submitted the most entries to the 2014 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.  Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners were announced in April. 

The Grand Stevie Award winners are:

• Maras Group, of Adelaide, Australia.  Steve Maras, Managing Director & CEO of the firm, won Gold for Services Executive of the Year in Australia.

• PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk (Telkom Indonesia) Jakarta, Indonesia, which had won a Gold Stevie for Technology Company of the Year

• PartspARTs & IMSEONOC, Seoul, South Korea. 
  IMSEONOC's Korean Uniform for the 2015 Sochi
  Winter Olympic Closing Ceremony had won
  a Gold Stevie.

• ABS-CBN, of Quezon City , the Philippines,
  which won one of their two Gold Stevie Awards
  for Services Company of the Year.

• Delta Air Lines - Asia Pacific Customer Engagement and Sales Support Center, Singapore, Gold Stevie winner for Customer Service Leader of the Year.           

 

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are the first new Stevie Awards program to be launched in seven years.  This business awards program was open to all organizations operating in the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region. 

Review the full list of Stevie Award winners here.

The 2014 awards offered 18 categories to choose from including Technology Company of the Year, Servcies Company of the Year, and Fastest Growing Company of the Year. We congratulate those who were awarded with a Stevie Award this past Friday.

Join the mailing list for the 2015 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and you'll be emailed the entry kit as soon as it's available this fall.