Four Reasons to Fire that Thanksgiving Turkey Today

By Nicole Donnelly, founder of SaltyWaffle.com.

Do you have a sales guy that you pay US$60,000 a year, though he never produces his numbers? The only reason to have a sales person in the first place is to deal with all of the customers knocking at your door! My advice: Free the turkey now! The holiday season is full of emotion, and you might have heard that waiting until after the New Year to fire someone is best. I disagree. Consider the following.

  • By firing them beforehand, you’ll help them save money, as they won’t spend money on gifts they can’t afford.
  • Holidays are a time to plan for the future; do you want this employee planning a future with you and your company?
  • Don’t you deserve a holiday season without the stress of a bad employee or layoffs looming?

When it comes to business, your money and time are better used for producing positive results. Wait a minute, no customers knocking at your door? You have a marketing problem, not a sales problem. Here’s a fun fact: Online marketing has the lowest cost as an activity and the highest return that you can get right now for any dollars spent growing your business. The average online marketing dollar produces a 2x-40x return! This applies to B2B and B2C organizations.

Even better, you don’t need to have an expert within your company to market your business online. There are plenty of experts out there who can do the work quickly and for a lower cost. Check their references with phone calls to at least three of their clients. Also, Google the company and the CEO. If they are really good at online marketing, they should show up all over the place, have fresh content on their pages and be cited by other expert sources. They wouldn’t want their good reputation hurt by a bad customer experience. If the company doesn’t show up online, they don’t have as much to lose if you are unhappy.

To get the maximum online marketing return, consider the following:

  • Make sure your site is converting (leads or sales) at 2-3% of traffic; if it’s not, redesign the site 
  • SEO – Structurally optimize all pages, including writing fresh relevant content on all pages
  • Get socially active on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In on a regular basis
  • Build relationships with traditional and online media (blogs) through social networks

If you do all of these things well, you will increase your leads. What’s more, sales will be knocking at your door. Again, I want to emphasize the fact that most companies can outsource ALL of this for the same price that you will pay one bad sales person in a year. Take this opportunity to polish your online presence.

“Your website is no longer a spoke in your marketing efforts. It is the hub around which all of your marketing efforts revolve,” said Cameron Madill of Synotac.com.

Evolve or die.

Categories: general

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