STEP BY STEP Introduction

StepByStep Sales & Marketing for Small Business™ is an online how-to resource for owners and managers of small businesses that will help you create a more effective competitive market position, and navigate the many pitfalls of creating a strong, effective, sustainable sales effort. The StepByStep program is brought to you by The Pohly Company, and its founder, Diana Pohly.

Diana has more than 30 years of sales and marketing experience working with some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Not only has she worked with big brands, but with many start-up brands as well. She is a recognized industry expert and is bringing her many years of experience to the StepByStep Sales & Marketing for Small Business program to benefit small and start-up businesses. StepByStep provides tips, tools, and techniques in a hands-on, how-to fashion that is easy to understand and easy to implement.

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By receiving our free weekly In Your Shoes tips, participating in a our regular lunch-time webinar series, downloading free tip sheets, and using our tools and templates, you can help ensure that you are approaching your markets competitively, and hiring, training, compensating, and managing your sales staff in an effective (and profitable) way. Come on in, find out more and grow your business the StepByStep way.

NEW ARTICLES
- Are Promoted Tweets the Next Google AdWords?
  
  If you've advertised with Google AdWords, you probably recall how excited you felt when you first learned all the advantages of using that ad platform. AdWords lets you test and select the most effective key terms that get your ad to appear in paid search results. Yet the biggest draw of AdWords is probably its low cost. You can set a strict budget for what an AdWords campaign costs you every day, and not spend a penny more.
  
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- Current Best Practices for Small-Business Content Marketing
  
  “7 Content Marketing Formats that Rock,” a post by Bernie Borges on the Optimize This blog, offers a useful checklist of content marketing options that work best for small companies today.
  
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- 10 Essentials for your Website
  
  If you have been through the process of building or rebuilding your company website, you already know how easy it can be to forget something essential. Your site goes live and then you realize that you forgot to include a new high-quality logo, social media icons, or other “must-haves” that may or may not have been a part of your original plans.
  
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- Tapping the Power of Localized Thinking
  
  "The death of "Small Town U.S.A." . . . or maybe not!", a post on Clay Forsberg's blog, is about doing business in small towns. What Forsberg might not realize is her home-town secrets could work equally well for small companies everywhere as they build their brand identity marketing strategies.
  
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- Sales: How to Qualify Leads with Just Six Questions
  
  According to sales consultant Mike Brooks, many companies scare away potential buyers by going into "pitch mode" instead of "qualification mode" the moment that potential buyers call. As a result, sales can be lost.
  
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WEBINARS

Join the conversation — Coming Soon!

Soon to be launched in 2013, StepByStep Sales & Marketing for Small Business™ will offer a Lunch-Time Series with founder and industry expert, Diana Pohly. Limited to 10 attendees per session, enjoy a half hour of instruction on topics of importance to your sales and marketing efforts. Then join in the conversation with other attendees and ask specific questions that will help your business. Return soon to see our 2013 calendar of events!
TOOLS & TEMPLATES
- Recorded Webinar: How to Create Your Own Brand TopSheet and Elevator Speech in 4 Easy Steps
  
  This recorded webinar will provide you with hands-on guidance about how to create your own Brand TopSheet that will document your company's values and brand promise, an essential component to maximizing your brand identity in today's competitive marketplace. And then you'll develop your very own Elevator Speech™, to tell your organization's story in 15 seconds or less (the time it takes to ride an elevator). An easy-to-use template is part of the package. Sign up now
  
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- Recorded Webinar: How to Identify New Prospects for Business Growth
  
  Download this recorded webinar and you'll create powerful and accurate profiles of your best target prospects… and you'll receive resource ideas about where to find these prospects. An easy-to-use template will take you through the process step by step. Then, get your marketing machine in motion to turn the right prospects into great customers. Sign up now.
  
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- Recorded Webinar: How to Identify and Prioritize Your Competitors With 6 Easy Steps
  
  Purchase this recorded webinar featuring Diana Pohly, founder of The Pohly Company and creator of the StepByStep program for small businesses. This one-hour program, complete with an easy-to-follow template, will help you develop clear, differentiated marketing messages to every day, in every way, across your business. Sign up now.
  
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- Webinar Bundle: Branding Made Easy
  
  The Branding Made Easy™ system is a series of 3 recorded webinar training events, complete with easy-to-follow templates, that will provide you the guidance and structure you need to develop a quality brand identity and competitive position. Purchase all three events as a package and complete the entire program over the course of a few days. Special 10% discount for the group of 3 webinars, complete with 3 great templates to guide you through the process. Sign up now.
  
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- Template: StepByStep Toolkit for Creating Your Own Brand TopSheet and Elevator Speech
  
  When you order this template, you'll be guided through a four-step process for creating a powerful marketing messaging platform for both intenal and external messages. You'll have two handy documents, a Brand TopSheet and your very own Elevator Speech™ for distributing to everyone on your team. It's simple and easy to complete — and just $47! Download Now
  
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- Template: StepByStep Toolkit for Creating Profiles of Your Best Prospects
  
  When you order this template, you'll be guided through a three-step process for developing a profile of your best typical customer, so you can find more new prospects just like that. It's simple and easy to complete — and just $47! Download Now
  
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- Template: StepByStep Toolkit for Establishing Your Competitive Edge
  
  Order this easy-to-use template and you'll be guided through a six-step process for arriving at powerful and compelling statements of positive differentiation from your competitors. It's easy to follow, easy to understand and execute, and very affordable for only $47! Download Now
  
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Free Downloads
- Free Tip Sheet: Online Advertising Tips
  
  Businesses that want to grow and thrive — even in a challenging economy — can do so with effective online advertising strategies. With the right strategies in place, you can maximize opportunities at affordable prices, with very low risk.
  
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- Free Tip Sheet: Getting New Customers
  
  Attracting new customers begins with having a well-crafted business development plan that ensures your efforts at prospecting for new customers are realistic and achievable. Because getting new customers is the key to ensuring profits for the long term.
  
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- Free Tip Sheet: Generating Sales Leads
  
  Is face-to-face selling as important as it once was? Do your salespeople get customers and prospects to divulge their needs and problems…and how your company can solve those? What about the ability to close sales? A smart, well-trained sales force will ensure that you are continuously driving sales and profits!
  
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- Free Tip Sheet: Direct Mail Marketing
  
  Our special free tip sheet on direct mail marketing tips is ideally suited for the busy professional. It’s concise and to-the-point, yet chock-full of specifics. Consider it your road map to profitable results whenever you send out any direct mail campaign.
  
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- Free Tip Sheet: Copywriting Tips
  
  Do you get writer’s block? Do you dread sitting down to write, even the most basic things that are necessary to sell your products and services? Copywriting shouldn’t be intimidating. And not every bit of writing should require you to hire an expensive copywriter.
  
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- Free Tip Sheet: Customer Profiling
  
  Customer profiling strategies, when properly executed, will help you develop a clear picture of your best customers. And when you know who your best customers are, it’s easier to know where to find more like them.
  
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- Free Tip Sheet: Business Research Methods
  
  Business Research Methods: Every business owner or manager should be doing research occasionally. But, what types of business research? What works best, and how much should it cost?
  
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- Free Tip Sheet: Brand Identity Marketing
  
  Do you want to learn the best way to get started with brand identity marketing? Discover the powerful strategies used by Apple, Starbucks, and other well-known brands to create an emotional bond with customers and prospects, to guide all your sales and marketing efforts to success!
  
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