Cydcor Blog

The Cydcor team decided to review Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

Description of this book: Permission Marketing refers to what is now termed as “inbound marketing”, which is a way to build a business where customers are coming to you based on your presence, reputation and word of mouth.  Sellers use permission marketing to get the right message to the right people in a way that is desirable to them, rather than blasting a ton of generic content to a mass market.  Sometimes, making a sale is not about insistence, but rather respecting that customers choose to give sellers and marketers their precious attention, and understanding that their attention is a valuable thing not to be wasted.  The way to permission marketing is making promises for the customer and then establishing trust by following through on those promises.  

Cydcor encourages team members to take this message to heart- customers are to be respected and their needs met.Cydcor recommends this book to marketers and business people because: The best message of the book is humility and patience.  Permission marketing means sellers need to craft a message that is valuable to consumers and worthy of their attention.  This message has to be a genuine offer, and when that agreement is settled, it is important the seller not ask for more without also offering more.  Seth Godin writes in an easy to understand, no-nonsense manner that makes his message simply make sense.Our favorite part: “A Permission Marketer goes on a date. If it goes well, the two of them go on another date. And then another. Until, after ten or twelve dates, both sides can really communicate with each other about their needs and desires. After twenty dates they meet each other's families. Finally, after three or four months of dating, the Permission Marketer proposes marriage.”

Cydcor is a leading sales company that specializes in face-to-face relationships and professional development.  Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn or Twitter for more professional development advice.  Want to work for Cydcor? Find our openings on the Cydcor Careerbuilder page today.

Incorporating email marketing into your business strategy is a great way to keep track of leads, follow up with contacts, and promote your business.  An email marketing web service is a great way to send branded emails, organize your contacts and represent your vision.

The Cydcor Sales blog recommends using email marketing services (Such as Constant Contact, Ace of Sales, Mail Chimp, etc.) as a way to send emails that are visually striking and keep in contact with your network.

Some email marketing services allow users to import their contacts, manage a limited number of  and send a variety of branded emails for no charge.  A paid account can get you more features and storage, but a small business should easily be able to meet their marketing needs for free.

Features you can find in email marketing software include being able to send pre-designed newsletters, greeting cards, updates and ads to contacts with pictures, company logos and links.  Connect your contacts with your website and social media in one, easy to build email.To create an account, just sign up with the email address you most frequently use for business and then confirm.  If you want to choose upgraded services you can.  Then import your contacts and choose which type of letter you want to send.  Newsletters are the most popular.  We created this one for Cydcor.

Features we like about email marketing tools include a “drag and drop” option in the design your own email step.  You can customize colors to keep your emails consistent with your branding.  You can also divide your contacts into lists, so you can send specially tailored emails to existing clients, prospective clients, and your extended network.  Email marketing services will also track who received and opened your letters, provide widgets to let people subscribe to your list on your website, and incorporate social sharing buttons into your templates.

Have you used email-marketing services before? What did you think?

The Cydcor Community chose to review Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Dr. Richard Carlson as a great book for personal development and stress management.

Description of this book: Dr. Richard Carlson has built a career on teaching people how to manage stress and let go of the minor pressures of a fast paced American lifestyle.  This is the original in a series of books on making life happier and more manageable by not “sweating” the small stuff, and pointing out even in the subtitle “it’s all small stuff”.  It is easy to get frustrated and hung up over things like bills, appointments, accidents and more hurdles in life, but the main message of this book is that stress and worry only make situations work.  Training your brain to think about solutions rather than fret is a powerful lifestyle choice.

Cydcor recommends this book to leaders because: Stress can be detrimental to your health and career.  Stressed out people also radiate negative energy and cause others to feel stressed or demotivated.  Good managers need to learn how to project productive and positive energy in order to maintain workplace harmony.  This book provides great perspective and can help you change your mental state to becoming a calm, happy and inspiring leader.  The book offers easy to commit to strategies that incorporate small changes that make a huge difference.

Our favorite part: "Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about a variety of things all at once." Dr. Carlson writes with whimsy and clarity that makes this book easy to read and convey its message.  This is one that will stick with you for life.

Cydcor is a leading sales company that specializes in face-to-face relationships and professional development.  Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn or Twitter for more professional development advice.

 Everyone has friends that say, “Oh I just watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.”  Indeed, big game advertising is easily the largest ad-spending day of the year, up 70% in the last ten years.  Between production cost and airtime, one ad can cost a company $10 million to air.  As a sales company, the team at Cydcor is fascinated by the tactics companies take to build their brands, and the commercials are informative as they are fun. Here are our takeaways from Cydcor:  

Social Media is huge.  Brands and Twitter users live-tweeted the game, commenting immediately on the commercials, sending companies real-time feedback. Many were hoping to strike lightening and garner new followers and make headlines the way Oreo did last year.

‍Generation Y loves nostalgia and sarcasm.  From the hilarious “commercial that never was” online campaign from Newcastle to seeing the men of Full House on a Chobani ad, the marketing this year was clearly targeted to children of the 90’s.  

People will engage with your brand for a chance to win.  Esurance led the biggest post-game trend by announcing it was giving away $1.5 million to a tweeter using the hashtag #EsuranceSave30.

‍Puppies are still a viable tactic.  Even one of the most masculine brands could not resist using puppies as a ploy.  The adorable story of a puppy that is best “buds” with the iconic Clydesdale horse was enough to make anyone swoon.  Sometimes just being cute pays off.

‍The bigger the purchase, the bigger the ad.  Car commercials were the biggest production, featuring Jaguar comparing their product to the cunning and precision of British villains and James Franco being dramatically awesome for Ford.  It makes sense that companies asking consumers to make such a large purchase would have the most memorable ads.  It’s a good reminder that larger sales prospects require more effort.

What did you learn about sales and advertising this weekend? Did you have a favorite commercial? Let Cydcor know on Twitter!

The big game is this weekend, and the competitive of sports has a lot of parallels with sales.  Succeeding in both sports and sales requires strategy, winning, rewards and competing.  Whether you are looking for a career or another client, using your football fandom can help give you an edge that will help you achieve your goals.  The Cydcor team shares its favorite sales plays to attracting clients and building relationships.‍

The Ice Breaker. Seek out new prospects with a winning personality.  Cydcor recommends using the “SEE” principles: smile, eye contact and enthusiasm.  Find out what the lead enjoys and find some common ground in the conversation.

‍The Stat Push. Bring the facts.  People are often convinced by solid evidence that what you are offering is a better decision.  This includes making sure people recommend your work, testimonials of your success, and information about your product or service.  If you have an answer for everything, no one can argue with you.  But don’t be too pushy with your knowledge; it can turn some people off.  Just be ready for questions.

The Full Rundown.  Go through your entire contact list and send each person a quick email or give them a call.  This will keep your list fresh and relevant, and you can see if any former prospects have changed their minds about your service.  The full rundown can help you prioritize your strategy, and keep you organized

‍The Hail Prospects. Go all out.  Make a list of all ideal people you want to work with and find ways to contact them.  Go all out, reach for the top, even if you think it’s impossible.  Throw everything you’ve got at your search until something breaks through.

‍The Double Back. Make sure you follow up with everyone you talk to with a thank you note.  Remember as well that past clients may be interested in upgrades or additional products that you have to offer.

‍What’s your favorite play? You can join the Cydcor community and let us know!

The team at Cydcor had a great conference last weekend at the Keys to Success annual kick off event.  This year's theme was Back to Basics, and it served as a great reminder to all our hard working team members that keeping a solid foundation in the basics of business will get you far in your career.  The team traveled to San Antonio, Texas, to meet with our group of expert sales affiliates from all over the country.  We shared meals, inspiration, celebrations and ideas.

This was the second year that the entire network was invited to the annual kickoff meeting for Cydcor and the event had over 900 attendees.

Want to follow all of Cydcor's updates on how to succeed?  Follow the Cydcor LinkedIn page.

Description of this book: Cydcor knows Michael Porter has long been considered a top business expert and leader, and this book is his signature piece of work.  Competitive Advantage is a model for creating and managing an enterprise successfully.  Porter offers tools for analysis that are taught in MBA programs around the country.  Michael Porter is a professor at Harvard Business School, and lectures and writes prolifically on managing a business.

Cydcor recommends this book to leaders because: Tactics such as the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis teaches critical thinking that is crucial to successfully leading a company.  Porter also discusses strategy at length, and helps businesses to either produce a scale economy or define a niche that will keep them profitable.  The danger for companies is to get stuck in the middle- trying to hard to please everybody, not sticking to the chosen strategy one hundred percent can lead to high costs and low or no profits. The book is filled with many real life examples of businesses either failing or executing a strong strategy based on “market signals”, which indicate the way an industry is moving and allows good executives to anticipate opportunities.

Our favorite part: Porter stresses over and over that businesses need to focus on goals and strategy in order to be successful.  Business does not have to follow every trend of what is popular.  Shoe makers do not have expand into technology.  Strong business strategy and profits is not always about having the biggest or best idea, but rather identifying its place in a market and doing things different from the competition.

Cydcor is a leading sales company that specializes in face-to-face relationships and professional development.  Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn or Twitter for more professional development advice.

Back to Basics was Cydcor's theme for the 2014 Keys to Success conference in San Antonio, Texas last weekend. Cydcor holds the Keys to Success event every year as an annual kick off. The meeting announced awards and promotions for Cydcor team members, and recognized achievers in our network of independently owned sales companies. Cydcor team members and other sales professionals got the opportunity to network and see the sights in San Antonio.
The Back to Basics Conference for Cydcor reviewed what it takes to be successful in the sales and marketing business. Inspirational stories on staying persistent and effective at work was shared across tables and on stage.  Guest speakers encouraged sales teams to stick with it, take care of your people and never give up.

Cydcor had a great time in Texas and the team is looking forward to a great year!

Cydcor team members are not always in the office, because they are out in the world acting as brand evangelists for clients. Traveling frequently can make it difficult to keep the office organized for days that do require deskwork.  Having appropriate storage solutions, cleaning strategy and fun décor for your desk can make your days indoors more productive and pleasant.  Check out Cydcor’s favorite office organizing tips on our new Pinterest board.  In the mean time, here are our favorites.

A place for everything. Make sure you always know where paper, pens, cards, and important information goes.  This includes having a desk caddy (we like the ones with personality!) for any tools you might be using, as well as a place to put books, snacks and odds and ends.

Business card organizers.  A small file box for all of your contact is a great way to keep track of all the cards you collect while traveling and attending events.  A bonus tip: rather than organize them alphabetically, keep them in files by their profession, so you know whom to call when looking for a specific service or information.

Out of sight out of mind.  Papers you never or rarely use should go on the bottom shelf or out of the way on the floor.  No need to clutter up accessible work space with items that do not need attention.

Three ring binders.  Binders with labels are a great way to keep track of papers if you do not have a filing cabinet handy.  Categories for papers could include specific clients, overall guidelines, a tracking of goals or other ways to organize.

Email files. Nothing is better than an empty email inbox! Some emails need to be saved for records, and don’t forget that email providers have the ability to file them into electronic folders.  Keeping your inbox clean with urgent messages marked as such can keep you on top of your game.

Make it fun! Personalized to do lists, calendars, and office décor can be motivating and satisfying.  Make sure it complies with work guidelines, but even a pencil holder can have a fun touch.

Interested in making your office space at Cydcor? Check CareerBuilder for job openings at Cydcor.

Cydcor Reviews The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Author: Brad Stone

Description of this book: This book details the history of online retailer Amazon, which started as an Internet book delivery store and later became a corporation that sells everything from high-definition televisions to fresh vegetables. Written by Brad Stone, senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek, the book details over 300 interviews with former employees of Amazon as well as family members of Bezos. Stone details Bezos’ thirst for exploring new markets, such as e-readers and cloud computer storage, as well as the future of the company. Amazon changed everything we know about online shopping, and also the way we read and shop today.

Why people should read this book: Not many people know the history of Amazon, and how it started in Jeff Bezos’ garage in Bellevue, WA. Bezos, a former vice-president at a Wall Street firm, studied what products would do well selling on the Internet, and decided that books were the way to go. From there, the book spills the secrets of how Amazon turned into the world’s largest online retailer, selling electronic media, toys, furniture, and jewelry. Stone’s thorough reporting is presented well, as well as his notion of belief in the company’s success.

My favorite part: Although Amazon is known for their success, I enjoyed learning its shortcomings as well. Amazon did not do well with their implementation of an auction system that failed to compete with eBay. The company will not even be profitable for years, due to their increase spending and growing. However, Bezos’s hunger has allowed Amazon to become a true American built company, one that allows other merchants to sell along with it, even without a president or chief operating officer. The story behind Bezos and his website is inspirational for any entrepreneur, and also interesting to say the least.

Cydcor is a leading sales company that specializes in face to face relationships and professional development.  Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn for more professional development advice.

Cydcor is a sales company.  We send teams of professionals out into the world and drive revenue on behalf of our clients.  Sales is a competitive field, and can be prove to be daunting for many people.  At Cydcor, team members are driven through professional training, perseverance, and a fun work atmosphere.  Many sales companies to try peddle “the ultimate secret” to selling, but the real secret to a career in sales is that there is no secret.  Sales takes hard work, a winning personality, and persistence.

Hard work means that when you are starting out, sales people need to practice refining skills, building conversation tools, collecting leads and making plans.  Time management skills are crucial, and the ability to learn how to accept rejection.  It is important to stay organized, keep track of which leads need what you are selling, who to follow up with, and what is a good use of your time.  It can sometimes mean long hours, putting in extra time and going the extra mile to make sure that you are coming out on top.

Cydcor sales teams learn that great sales success comes from developing a warm, outgoing persona that is devoted to customer service.  Sales is about giving customers what they want and need, and success comes when they believe you have their best interests in mind.  Smiles, knowledge and solutions go a long way.

Persistence is key to succeeding in any business.  Knowing the difference between “no thank you” and “not today” can make a huge difference.  It is important not to be annoying to customers who are truly not interested, but there are others who may be just not ready, or more open minded later.  A simple email once a month will help your leads keep you in mind.

At Cydcor, we reward team members who take the time and energy to become successful.  Promotions from within, sales contests, awards, conferences and team night celebrations are a common part of the culture.  If you are interested in a career at sales, check out the Cydcor Career Builder Page.