5 Types of Pain Points Businesses Commonly Face

Spending time on a prospect that doesn't buy is a common challenge most salespeople face. Putting yourself through the time-draining process of selling to someone who doesn't buy is a huge drain to productivity.

Diving back to the source of sales, people usually buy when there is a problem, and they are looking for a solution. If your prospects don't have a pain they usually do not have a need. And without a need, there is very little chance of a sale. And it's up to salespeople to ask effective sales questions that help to uncover any of the pains that they face as quickly as possible to deliver a solution which would end up in a sale.

Here are 5 pain points you can use to position yourself to uncover the potential problems that they are facing to drive more sales.

1. Positioning Pain Points

Which business does not need to acquire more or better business? However, this end goal is easier to set than to achieve. Many businesses may understand - or think they understand the problem that other's are facing. Common positioning pains that prospects face are:

1. No one knows who our company is
2. Our competitors are outspending us
3. The market is changing, and leaving us behind
4. We've not considered digital marketing and we feel like we're being left behind

2. Productivity Pain Points

Is there something that's prohibiting a company and its employees from working efficiently and effectively? From this perspective your product or service might be able to provide the solution to help them solve this particular pain point.

3. Financial Pain Points

Money is always the #1 topic for any business and it's often caused by the lack of it. Every business benefits from improving their financial standing and here are the common pain points which they face:

1. We're not selling enough
2. Revenue is high but our profitability is meager
3. We don't have enough visibility
4. We may be overpaying for our costs but we do not know what to cut

4. People Pain Points

People are at the heart of every business. It's the greatest expense and represents the largest asset. Some of the pain points commonly faced are:

1. Employee morale is low
2. We lose our best employees to higher paying positions elsewhere
3. Our lack of diversity means a lack of innovation
4. We can't trust our middle managers to motivate or train

5. Process Pain Points

With people problems there comes operational problems. Process may be overlooked as rigidity however, if your prospects understand that this is the best way to achieve repeatable success is through the implementation of a repeatable process, this could be a common pain point that they are facing:

1. Our hiring process isn't great, and we struggle with finding highly qualified candidates
2. Customer churn is very high
3. We have no system in place to qualify leads
4. There are inconsistencies in each employees' workflow.

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6 Great Ways on How to Find Leads Quickly (Optimised for Malaysia)

The hardest thing in sales is finding leads. And this is even harder when the leads are qualified and ready to purchase.

However difficult this is, it's a task that sales representatives can't avoid.

This doesn't have to be all doom and gloom and it can be made easier on them, by having a go-to list of places to find prospects and a specific procedure for each platform. That way finding prospects wouldn't be much of a rocket science, but a predictable practice.

Having spoken to a few salespeople in Malaysia, below are 6 great ways you can find prospects fast and keep filling up your pipelines every month.

Start here.

1. Job Boards

Job listings are windows to understanding a person's needs. For instance, if you notice that a company is hiring for an HR person and you provide the services to help with this, you might learn that this would be a great organisation to reach out to.

It's likely that they are struggling with HR related matters and would be interested in hearing from someone who can help you.

2. Twitter

The key to making the most out of Twitter is to have a list of the top 3 or 4 keywords your target people care about. You can search up keywords through Twitter searches, Google Trends, etc.

There might be people searching and asking questions, and others might be complaining about how difficult something maybe. In any case, you can jump into the conversation and add value.

The key point is not to push your product, but be someone genuine that is helpful.

3. Business Journals

This is a great way to keep in touch with the local community and to learn what are the latest news and big events happening at companies within this area.

This can be a great way for you to reach out as a point of reference when you send your first email or make the first call to your new prospect.

4. Industry Forums

You should subscribe to newsletters like that are relevant to your industry. A great place to start is to stay in touch with your target customers email newsletters.

3 benefits of doing this you can:

• Find out what's new
• Learn what successes are happening
• Stay up to date on industry trends and strategies

If they're not active through email, you can always follow them on any social platform that the organisation is actively participating in.

5.  LinkedIn

When used correctly, LinkedIn can be a gold mine for prospects.

Join relevant groups, and add to the conversation and be of help to the general community. Keep engaging and don't sell off the bat.

People generally don't like being sold to, but they like to purchase with a friend. That's the big call.

6. Local Chamber of Commerce

This might not be the most obvious but there are ways to connect. You'd be surprised how many businesses are actively looking for products and services but can't seem to find the right fit.

• Chambers of commerce in Malaysia - MATRADE list
• MITI List

This may be a goldmine if you know your ideal customer persona.

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When looking for qualified leads, there isn't a way for fast prospecting. Take your time to build a mutually beneficial relationship or make a friend and the necessary rapport that you earn will be great in the long-run.

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How to Import or Export Your MySQL Database?

Usually MySQL is imported for the following reasons:

• Switching from a web hosting provider to another
• Implementing a new third-party database
• Backing up your database

This article explores how you can switch, implement or backup a MySQL database.

To start, briefly we'll rediscover reasons to choose MySQL, challenges MySQL faces, and how we manage these challenges.

What is MySQL Database?

MySQL is an open-source software system that enables users to define, create, maintain and control access to the database (Connolly and Begg, 2014).

The best 5 reasons to choose MySQL database:

1. Safe money transactions
• Transactions in MySQL work as a grouped unit, and unless every operational function is successfully completed, a transaction will not clear. Meaning, if an operation fails at any stage, an entire transaction occurring within that group collapses.
2. Scale on-demand
• MySQL has complete customisation enabled. Everything from big data centers to an E-commerce business, MySQL is able to match the database needs.
3. High availability
• A reliable feature of MySQL is its consistent availability through its wide variety of configurations enabling instant failover or uninterrupted access.
4. Reliable
• MySQL supports SSH and SSL encryptions to ensure safer connections. Combined with restricted user access (even at the machine level) and a backup feature facilitating point-in-time recovery.
5. Quick-start capable
• From download to installation within 15 minutes. Implementation of this robust, free database is exceptionally quick, regardless of the underlying platform.

Challenges of MySQL and how to manage these challenges

Some of the challenges faced by MySQL:

• Development time
• Replication
• Database logging costs
• Query caches
• High connection churn

How to manage these challenges?

Implementation of database load balancing software. Enabled automatic read / write split so you can a host of advantages (includes: readable replicas, augment failover, analytical visibility, and one-click caching).

The benefit of implementing a database load balancing software is the ability to upgrade your apps quickly and remain up all year round.

How to export your MySQL database?

To export your MySQL database, use:

1. phpMyAdmin, or
2. 'mysqldump' database command line program.

Here's a quick note on how I've organised this guide:

• green highlight = an action you need to take
• blue highlight = location reference

If your choice to export your database is to use phpMyAdmin

This can be done through the phpMyAdmin web interface, and can be accomplished following the steps below:

1. Login to your cPanel.
2. Under the DATABASES section of the cPanel home screen, select phpMyAdmin.
3. At the left pane of your phpMyAdmin page, select the database that you want to export.
4. When you have selected the database you wish to export, click on the Export tab to begin the exporting process.
5. A prompt for you to choose an Export method will appear, confirm that Quick is selected.
6. Under Format, confirm that SQL is selected.
7. Select Go.
8. In the Save File dialog box, choose where on your computer you would like to save your exported database to.
9. Select Save, and the export process will start.

If your choice to export your database is to use the 'mysqldump database program'

1. Transfer the dbexport.sql file to your hosting account using SCP, SFTP, or FTP.
2. Login to your hosting account using SSH.
3. Change to the directory where you uploaded the dbexport.sql file.
4. Type the following command, and press Enter.
• [ mysql -u username -p dbname > dbexport.sql ]
5. Enter your password.
6. The dbexport.sql file now contains the data for the dbname database 
• (if your dbexport.sql file was saved on your servers download the file to your local computer).
7. Your export is complete.

How to import your MySQL Database

After you have created a new database in cPanel, and similar to importing your MySQL database you can import the contents of your exported database by using either:

1. phpMyAdmin, or
2. 'mysqldump' database command line program.

If your choice to import your database is to use phpMyAdmin

1. Login to your cPanel.
2. Under the DATABASES section of the cPanel home screen, select phpMyAdmin.
3. At the left pane of your phpMyAdmin page, select the database that you want to export.
4. When you have selected the database you wish to export, click on the Import tab to begin the exporting process.
5. Under File to Import, select Browse.
6. Choose your exported dbexport.sql file.
7. Select Go.
8. The import process has started and should show in your database.

If your choice to export your database is to use the 'mysqldump database program'

1. Transfer the dbexport.sql file to your hosting account using SCP, SFTP, or FTP.
2. Login to your hosting account using SSH.
3. Change to the directory where you uploaded the dbexport.sql file.
4. Type the following command, and press Enter.
• [ mysql -u username -p dbname < dbexport.sql ]
5. Enter your password.
6. The dbexport.sql file now contains the data for the dbname database 
• (if your dbexport.sql file was saved on your servers download the file to your local computer).

Further reading 

• For more information about the mysqldump database command line program.
• For more information about the mysql command line program.
• For more information about phpMyAdmin.

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How to Access Your Webmail through cPanel

Webmail applications enable you to check your e-mail accounts by using your web browser. You can compose and read e-mail messages, maintain an address book, and perform other common tasks.

When and why would you want to use Webmail to access your email accounts?

Common email services like Yahoo Mail and Gmail are accessed through webmail. Every major hosting company provides web-based access to their email accounts, webmail. It is a convenient way to access your email account from any computer anywhere in the world so long it is connected to the internet.

Common reasons to why webmail is useful:

1. All it takes is for your primary computer to face a problem that hinders you from using your email application effectively.
2. When you are on holiday and traveling without a computer or laptop with you.

What are the two common webmail applications cPanel uses?

Usually there are two webmail applications that you can used to help you access your webmail using your web browser:

1. Horde 
2. Roundcube

Steps to How You Can Access Your Webmail through cPanel

To access your e-mail account using webmail from within cPanel, follow these steps:

1. Log in to cPanel. 
2. In the EMAIL section of the cPanel home screen, click Email Accounts. 
3. Under Email Accounts, locate the e-mail account that you want to access and click the CHECK EMAIL button. 
4. If this is the first time you are accessing webmail for the account, select the webmail application that you want to use. 
5. Now you can access your email through the Webmail interface through cPanel.

How to access webmail without cPanel?

If you can't remember your cPanel login alternatively you can access your webmail through:

• [ example.com:2096 ]

Host your business email with reliable, scalable, email hosting from Malaysia.

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10 Important Best Practices to Include in Your Email (for 2019)

All of us receive plenty of emails during the day, and to help your emails stand out and grab attention there's small nuances in email that you should be paying attention to.

Start here: What is email design?

Email design is strategic placement and creation of an email that appeals to your reader, or customer. Typically, you would want your design to be attention-grabbing, aesthetically-pleasing, and focused on your brand image to promote recognition with the receiver.

Why is email design important?

Your potential customer only spares your email 1.1 seconds before deciding if your message is worth their time or not.

Design has never been as important to successful marketing efforts, and it's key to keep recipients reading and interacting with your email.

Below you'll discover the 12 important best practices in include in your email for 2019

1. Craft a strong subject line

The subject of your email is the first piece of information your reader sees. Although the statement is brief it holds importance to pique the interest of your readers. The objective is to grab their attention to motivate them to open and read your email.

Here's a checklist of what your subject line should do:

1. Grab attention in as few words as possible
2. Provide value to encourage them to open your email
3. A good summary of what they should expect to read

2. Write a pre-header

This is the second thing your reader sees. This has equal weight to crafting a strong subject line. Don't repeat the strong subject line.

3. Be concise

The point of email is being straight to the point. Here's a great read on how to write short emails.

4. Maintain your brand through email

Impression is everything in today's age. This means your email should be branded to the point that they do not need to look at who's sending the message to know it's from you.

Tips on keeping your brand consistent through email:

• Use the appropriate email tone. Great tip on managing your voice when writing copy here.
• Incorporate the same colors and fonts.
• Include your logo, and relevant digital assets.

5. Keep your layout clean for a better user experience.

Manage the layout of your email. If you bunch together words in a single paragraph, nobody is going to read your email. More on user experience design here.

6. Personalise email

This works great to enhance your brand and at the same time improves email retention.

7. Incorporate unique content

Include unique images, videos, GIFs, and animations to break up the written content.

Here's great resources for free photos:

1. Pexels
2. Unsplash

8. Don't be afraid to use emojis

You can get emojis to use here.

9. Use responsive design

Users today are sophisticated and have various ways of accessing their emails (desktop, laptop, mobile device, etc.) Ensure their experience of reading your email is flawless regardless of the platform they choose to view through.

10. Optimise with CTAs

We often neglect this but a good call to action (CTA) helps you to convert your email readers to take action.

Where to get enterprise email hosting in Malaysia? 

Try our web hosting solution.

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4 Follow-Up Secrets to Avalanche Sales

There's a myth that there exists a magic formula for any sales efforts, a silver bullet, subject line, or time to write or call your prospect.

The promise of a magic formula engulfs almost all sales professionals, in their constant search for this elixir. However, we noticed that it wasn't a magic formula that lead to more sales, but a proven system with some guidance the secrets to unlocking an avalanche of sales is possible.

The secret is in discovering a follow-up strategy that works best for you.

Here's how you can create an avalanche of sales with these 4 follow-up secrets:

• The amount of touchpoints
• The varying outreach channels
• Time between touchpoints
• Content of touchpoints

1. The amount of touchpoints

Realise that every sale requires time. The sales process hinges on where your prospect is in their buying journey, and there's no real way to know with 100% certainty.

The first key is to be persistent, because it matters in sales. Although reaching out to your prospects often helps to improve your odds for sales, however, keep in mind that reaching out at the wrong intervals, wrong channels and with the wrong message would ruin your efforts.

2. The varying outreach channels

There's a tendency to only use email as a means in your communication piece. With the world even more connected than what it used to be, pairing email with phone calls and social media outreach usually leads to a winning strategy.

A good practice is to immediately follow up your call with an email.

Add social media into the mix. A great way to achieve this is by favoriting your prospect's tweet and following them an hour later. When they follow you back, you can then send a direct message.

This similar approach can be replicated across suitable social channels. Hidden tip here is to avoid personal social networks such as Facebook / Instagram.

3. Time between touchpoints

Let's cut to the chase, here's the best time we've found that works well:

• Day 1: Call and email
• Day 2: Email and Twitter
• Day 3: Twitter
• Day 5: Email and LinkedIn
• Day 7: Email
• Day 10: Call and Email
• Day 17: Email and Twitter
• Day 21: LinkedIn
• Day 28: Call and email

4. Content of Touchpoints

Content largely determines how you come across as over your communication efforts. Whether you are annoying or just a persistent businessperson.

• Reemphasize business value
• Offer insights
• Educate
• Share news

Preparing your sales strategy can be time consuming and requires effort. Don't lose your email to non-reliability. Learn more about reliable business email here.

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3 Killer Ways to Get Your Prospect to Always Respond to You

Not all prospects are very responsive. Often an email get's ignored or a response is delayed. A call is answered but time is always of the essence. Trust me, it isn't your vigor or lack of it, it's an exception rather than a rule.

It's common for your prospect to go dark after being responsive after awhile. You need to find creative ways to reignite the interest in what you are offering before the deal sways to someone else.

Silence doesn't mean a bad reflection of how you've handled your sales process. It takes two hands to clap and yes this doesn't mean you stop improving, but sometimes it's them. For many reasons their interest in your product (sometimes their own job) has waned.

However, if this is often happening then it's time to brush up on your questioning and closing skills. If they turn cold for any reason whatsoever, come up with follow-up strategies to try to re-engage them and get a new deal rolling in the future.

Here's 3 killer ways to get your prospect to always respond to you!

1. Change your closes.

Closing is the final interaction, and often the most important one. It is when you, as the salesperson, is asking the reader / prospect to commit to doing something -- regardless of the size of the task.

Great example of closes include:

1. Asking a prospect to read a white paper,
2. Scheduling a call,
3. Making an introduction, or 
4. Providing an important resource or information.

Don't be tempted to repeat the last close repeatedly when the prospect goes quiet. Instead maybe setup with the contact or their boss.

Make your close specific instead of vague. For example:

I'm trying to get a better understanding of your organisation. Where can I learn more about [ project / team / announcement? ]

2. Find a way with another point of contact

A breakup email may get an answer from an unresponsive prospect, but you run the risk of burning a potential sales opportunity for good.

Here's an example we've used after a prospect has gone cold after a few months:

Hi [ name ]

I found this white paper recently, and I thought of your company while I read it -- I think a lot of the lessons would be very helpful to you. I've attached it here. Please give me a call once you've read it because I'd love to get your thoughts and ask some follow up questions.

If this doesn't receive any response you can close in a passive-aggressive manner:

Since I never heard back from you, I assumed you moved on. If there's any hosting related inquiries that you might have in future, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

3. Call your prospects back at different times.

Right under your nose, but not done: Call and email your prospect at different times. We often get into routine and this habit. We make it a point to call at 2:30pm every week on the same day.

Getting into routine isn't bad practice, however, it is good to consider that your prospect may have a commitment at that time and may face difficulties responding to your call.

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Secret Tip Inside: The Quick and Easy Guide to Setting up Your Google My Business (for Malaysia)

If you are a local business getting started on SEO, Google My Business listing is a great place to focus your early efforts.

Yes your intent is true, because you are trying to solve the problem of people searching for a specific product or a service near them - this means that they are very close to actually making a purchase. It's very common for a person to conduct a search to visit the store they found on the same day (or within the next few days). 

The best way to start is to ensure that your information which appears on Google is accurate and complete. Next is to ensure your listing is as strong as possible, and optimised to serve its function.

Learn how you can encourage more local searches to find your business. Read on...

1. Create your Google My Business Listing

You can do this by visiting  www.google.com/business 

A great tip to take into consideration is when defining your delivery options, make sure you select "deliver goods to your customers". This could be a game changer between you and your competition.

2. How to verify your business on Google My Business Listing?

In Malaysia the best way about is by postcard.

Make sure your business address is correct (Optional: Add a contact name - who the postcard should be addressed to).

When you've received your postcard, login to your Google My Business account and enter the 5-digit verification code on your postcard.

 Registering and getting verified is fun and all, but it's just the beginning from here on out, you'll be discovering the secret tips on your Google My Business Listing and how it'll help yourlocal business in Malaysia. 

3. How to Optimise Your GMB Listing

Here's where the secret lies. After verifying your business with Google My Business, go to the dashboard and select the listing that you would like to work on.

Select Info and choose a section to update.

The secret tip here is to add as much information and media as you can, including a business profile photo, the area you serve, your hours, facilities (eg. wheelchair accessible, or free wifi), your operating hours, public phone, website URL and year you started.

Make sure your submission is correct the first time round to avoid people from suggesting any edits in the future.

Google My Business Photos

According to Google, businesses with photos are 35% more likely to drive more traffic to them and 42% higher requests for directions on Google Maps.

Be sure to include at least a:

• Cover photo
• Profile photo
• Exterior photo
• Interior photo
• Product photos (if applicable)
• Employees at work (if applicable)
• Food and Drink (if applicable)
• Common areas
• Rooms
• Team

Google My Business Videos

You can also add videos. 

If you are considering videos, your videos must be: 

• 30 seconds or shorter
• 100 MB or smaller
• 720p resolution or higher

Google My Business Reviews

One of the best ways to encourage future customers is to have previous or existing customers to leave positive reviews. Respond to current ones. 

Great ideas for responding to both positive and negative comments:

• To a positive review -- We're so glad you enjoyed [ your product ] it's one of our favorites, as well. Hope to see you back at [ your business name ] soon!
• To a negative review -- We're now double-checking orders to make sure everyone gets exactly what they asked for. If you'd like to come back in, we'd be happy to give you [ product ] on the house. In any case, thanks for your business, and I hope we can do better next time.

Do you need a Google+ account? No -- Google+ has shutdown, follow the article here.

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6 Steps to Becoming an Influencer in Your Industry

The way purchasing decisions are being made has changed since the age of social media and Influencer Marketing has skyrocketed since it first made its mark. The behavior of today's customers have shifted from sales presentations to collective recommendations from honest and credible people who have had an experience with the product.

"These qualities represent more of a trust in peers as compared with industry experts. And today, these are being transpired by influencers on social media."

Now with technology being easily accessible by every modern consumer, the landscape for sales and marketing is evolving.

Influencer marketing is important, however being an influencer in your own field is pure gold. Do not confuse being an influencer to being a celebrity. Influencers are not celebrities, they represent a group of ordinary people who have earned a loyal following because of either their expertise and/or transparency. While celebrities actively endorse products or services, influencers share valuable information with their followers.

The shorter strategy would be to advertise through influencers, however being your own social media influencer has great upside potential for you.

In this post, we will explore the necessary steps for you to become a social media influencer.

What are the steps you should take to become an influencer on social media in your industry?

Step 1: Find your niche

First, decide on a specific niche where you want to be known. This can be challenging as there are many topics that can be covered, but it is important to only focus on a specific niche. Normally, what sets different influencers apart is the tendency for an influencer to be known on a particular niche within the industry that they are truly passionate about.

To narrow down your topic of influence you can ask yourself what are the challenges your ideal reader faces and how you can help by sharing more on the topic to help solve and address this.

Step 2: Break the status quo

Commonly most people reason based on what happened in the past, what was successfully done, or what something no one else is doing. The evidence for this is everywhere. All you have to do is take notice of any particular industry, they are doing nearly the same thing, talking about the same topics, and even using similar formats when it comes to publishing and promoting their content.

Alternatively, you could break the status quo by following Elon Musk's thinking process instead. This forcefully makes you disregard the status quo, the main objective of doing this. As mentioned you want to set yourself apart from other celebrities and especially influencers in your niche.

Stand out with new and fresh information for your target audience.

Step 3: Choose your channel

Social media comes in different forms and delivery. For example, YouTube allows you to share video, Instagram is a great place to share photos, LinkedIn keeps you connected professionally, and more.

Although every channel has varying statistics on performance, (click-through-rates, reach, engagement, etc.) having the best statistically performing social channel may not be right for your target audience.

Your ideal audience may spend most of their time researching through blogs (learn how you can start online with web hosting here), learning about latest trends and events through Instagram, and following a walkthrough on YouTube. Knowing where your ideal audience is in the stages of their consumer behavior will help you position your valuable information.

Step 4: Develop your content strategy

As you know influencers may not be celebrities, and what sets them apart is their intent to share valuable information with their followers.

There are many effective suggestions on content strategy, however what we've found is giving a balance of informative and personal content is effective in developing a successful content strategy.

Here is a great read on how to become a great content creator.

Step 5: Distribute your content

Your content is only as good as how many people it has helped. If you are not getting people to see it and engage with it, it is not exactly useful.

It's just as critical to know how to distribute your content, as developing great content. Here's a great way to learn how you can make your social sharing explode.

Post snippets of your content on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. and customise your message depending on the social media channel you are interacting with.

A great place to share this is through LinkedIn as you continue to be a thought leader.

Step 6: Be consistent

This doesn't just apply to when your followers leave a question or comment on your posts, take the time to acknowledge and respond to them.

A major factor on most platforms is consistency. Quality does matter but you need to ensure that you deliver quality on a consistent basis. If you don't online platforms will assume your low engagement is a sign of a lack of relevance.

What are you doing to be an influencer in your industry?

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5 Ways to Make Your Sales Email Convert Like Crazy

Writing effective sales and marketing emails can be difficult and a struggle. But consider, a single email could make or break a deal.

It's just as important to know what to include in your emails, it's equally important to be persuade as much as stand out.

There's no catch and you definitely do not need to be a professional copywriter to know how to write a sales email which converts more dollars.

" It's not what you write in your email, it's how you write it. "

To help you start, here are 5 ways you can make your sales emails convert like crazy. 

This is so easy you can start in under 5 minutes.

1. Humanize

It's often easy to forget that the email you're pouring time and effort into is meant for another person. An example which is common in the Malaysian workplace is the use of "Dear" to start an email.

The salutation of "Dear" isn't wrong, but it creates a sense of formality. This means distance. In certain situations you might not want the distance, but rather a more casual relationship to engage better.

A great way to put this in a nutshell is to create a perception that your reader is actually talking to you, and your email is just a means of transport to communicate your message to him/her. 

Remember, being overly casual does not always mean "closing the gap" it could be a practice that might not be well received. You want to measure how casual or formal you can be, depending on the industry you are in and to whom you are writing this email to.

I prefer to start my emails with "Hi" and to end the email on a more personal tone with "Catch up on WhatsApp."

2. Be clear with your intent

Obvious but often not done. State the purpose of your email right at the beginning. 

I work for a business web hosting company, so my value proposition when opening any email I would write could be: "We offer affordable packages while ensuring your website is almost always turned-on (99.99% uptime) and for you to save your hair when it comes to technical jargon (great 24/7 customer support)."

3. Write email based on your reader's objectives

This is difficult even for me, as it's only natural to write an email based on what you want to achieve and very rarely about the reader's objectives.

A good way to implement this is to always keep in mind; 

• What does your reader want to know? 
• What does your reader care about?
• What is your reader's expectations?

 This would be more convincing, 

" Even if your children are 8-hours away studying in University, ask how they are this instant without worrying about the connection. " 

 compared to, 

" The best International Calling rates in the country with the widest country network. "

Although this may perceive to be a more compelling message, this may not be true for every audience.

If you are selling a complex product to technical experts, granular details could be key in your communication strategy. 

4. Repeat the key sales message

It can often be difficult to keep an email short, and in most situations there's often a lot to cover.

A good practice to follow is to repeat what you've written at the start. This may mean a repetition of the same message, but the intention here is to be deliberate. You want to emphasize the importance of this message you've mentioned.

5. State an obvious next step

Rather than ending your email with thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon, take advantage of this space to direct your reader to take an action you desire them to take.

For example:

Call or Email me now

In my enthusiasm to help, I may have provided a lot of information above to digest. If you have further questions or if you'd like to go through this together, please connect with me by replying to this email or by dropping me a quick WhatsApp at +6x-xx-xxx-xxxx.

Consider these tips in your next email, and share with us your results. For more tips on sales, marketing, or the web stay tuned for future posts.

If you'd like to learn about how we keep other businesses online all-day and everyday reach out to our sales team here.

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6 Steps To Transform Your Sales Organization to be Best-in-Class

Best-in-class sales organizations use a consultative sales process. A sales process is consultative when the stages and actions align with the customer’s buying experience and customer relationship.

A typical consultative sales process is made up of 6 steps. Each stage maps out winning behaviors and strategies.

In this article we will discover the key 6 Steps of the consultative sales process.

Each stage should define the objective, best practice activities, tools, models, and customer actions that signal readiness to advance to the next stage (for example, the customer agrees to a meeting in stage one or provides access to the executive buyer in stage two).

"Hidden tip: Make sure there is a list of coaching questions related to each stage."

Step 1: Target + Qualify

The customer becomes aware of a business problem. Alternatively, the salesperson creates a pre-stage one opportunity by introducing an idea or challenge that is not yet on a customer’s agenda, or raises the visibility of an issue the customer has underestimated.

Step 2: Explore + Assess

Customers assess how much of a priority the issue is, determine their options, and develop decision criteria and decision process. Salespeople can help their prospects by sending them how-to blog posts, offering to run a consultative call, and sending them relevant content resources.

Step 3: Develop Solution

Customers research, compare solutions, narrow down choices, and refine decision criteria. The salesperson must differentiate, focus on business outcomes, and prove value.

Step 4: Present + Follow up

Knowledgeable customers make their selection and negotiate. Skilled salespeople will have already involved procurement prior to this stage. You should already know what steps need to be taken for your prospect's organization to buy a new product or service. That knowledge is crucial for presenting a solution with a realistic timeline.

Step 5: Negotiate + Close

Customers make the purchase. Salespeople support implementation and follow-up. When a close is imminent, it's more important than ever to make sure your prospect feels supported.

Step 6: Implement

Customers are in an evaluation mode. In the post-purchase stage, customers implement, measure outcomes, and evaluate performance against the sales promise. They decide on the future of the relationship. Salespeople must discuss results, prove value, and build on the rapport they previously created.

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Deliver 1st class value to your customers.

Discover how we maintain a unique position in our industry that only focus its resources and technical expertises in making the complex internet and messaging platforms are unified, managed, and monitored by a team of 24/7 messaging specialists.

EVERWORKS™ Solutions have successfully assisted, implemented and provided excellent service to prominent clients such as Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), Media Prima Berhad (included TV3, 8TV, HotFM and FlyFM), OSK Berhad, CIMB Bank, AMBank, Hong Leong Bank Berhad, Institute Jantung Negara (IJN), PriceWaterhouse Coopers Malaysia, LIMKOKWING University, GAC Shipping, KLIA Express, AP Land Berhad, City & Guilds, Noritsu and many others.

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What have you done to transform your sales organization to be best-in-class?

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5 Easy Tactics to Solve the 502 Bad Gateway Error

There are 5 common and effective solutions for analyzing and fixing most of the causes of 502 Bad Gateway Errors. The tactics discussed below provide general fixes for 502 Bad Gateway Errors.

To guide you through the hassle of fixing the dreaded 502 Bad Gateway Error, let's go over what it is, the common causes and best ways to solve it.

What is a 502 Bad Gateway Error?

A 502 Bad Gateway Error is a general indicator that there's something wrong with a website's server communication. Since it's just a generic error, it doesn't actually tell you the website's exact issue. When this happens, your website will serve an error web page to your site's visitors.

We'll cover below the 5 common and effective solutions for analyzing and fixing most of the causes of 502 Bad Gateway Errors.

1. Clear your browser cache

Sometimes server connectivity issues are resolved relatively quickly. Before you dive deep into what's causing the problem, take steps to insure that this is actually a major error and not just a blip.

Wait a minute or two. Then reload the page. If the page loads with no error, this might've been a temporary connection problem.

If the page is still giving you an error, clear your browser cache and then try refreshing it once more.

2. Look for connectivity issues

Most websites live on multiple servers or third-party hosting providers. If your server is down for maintenance or any other reason, your website could serve visitors a 502 Bad Gateway Error page.

The only way to troubleshoot this issue is to wait for your server to finish maintenance or fix the problem causing the error.

If you don't want to contact your hosting service, one quick way to make this determination could involve running a ping test to see if messages are reaching your IP. If that doesn't work, move on to investigating the error.

3. Contact your hosting provider

If you can't figure out the problem on your own, or if you think your host company is the culprit, give them a call. They may be able to look deeper into what's going on and shed some light on the situation.

If the issue is on their end, they might be able to easily fix it. If the problem is something related to your website specifically, they might also be able to walk you through the solution.

4. Check your DNS changes

If you've recently changed host servers or moved your website to a different IP address, it'll make changes to your website's DNS server. This could cause your website to serve its visitors a 502 Bad Gateway Error page.

Your website won't run until these DNS changes take full effect, which commonly can take up to a few hours.

5. Go through your server logs

Server logs will provide details about your server's health and status. Sift through them to uncover and respond to any alarming information.

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Cut through the technical requirements of managing your website

Discover how we maintain a unique position in our industry that only focus its resources and technical expertises in making the complex internet and messaging platforms are unified, managed, and monitored by a team of 24/7 messaging specialists.

EVERWORKS™ Solutions have successfully assisted, implemented and provided excellent service to prominent clients such as Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), Media Prima Berhad (included TV3, 8TV, HotFM and FlyFM), OSK Berhad, CIMB Bank, AMBank, Hong Leong Bank Berhad, Institute Jantung Negara (IJN), PriceWaterhouse Coopers Malaysia, LIMKOKWING University, GAC Shipping, KLIA Express, AP Land Berhad, City & Guilds, Noritsu and many others.

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What's the most common issue to your 502 Bad Gateway Error?

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5 Ideas to Help Deliver Better Customer Service in Malaysia

AI is replacing processing jobs and is a bleak future for those who are not embracing technology in their business. However, there is a key differentiation that can be implemented in business which is, through customer service. Customer service is a key differentiating factor for any business as it is essentially the act of helping customers, both reactively and proactively.

In this article, we'll be discussing about 10 things to implement to blow your customer service out of the park.

The customer service team ensures a customer's needs is fulfilled. The key here is not just to must troubleshoot support calls, answer customer inquiries, and perform a variety of tasks to keep customers engaged and satisfied, but also to ensure that these tasks are carried out with a personal touch.

For small business owners this can be overwhelming. With all of these functions performing at once, it can be difficult to stay in touch with everything your customer service team does.

This can be worrying to, because Customer Service is a vital component to your company's success. It represents your front facing "first impression" to the world.

There is a key challenge: it's difficult to outline everything you should be doing for your customers. However if solved, could unearth a hidden gem that could make your business explode.

To help small businesses, we cover below the 10 things you could implement for your customer service team to ensure that you are delivering the best possible service.

1. Build a customer success program

To capitalize on customer success, you need an organized program. Customer success programs identify customer goals and develop roadmaps to help customers achieve them. It's more likely for a customer to return your business when they succeed with your product or service.

2. Build customer loyalty programs

It costs five to 25 times more to acquire a new customer. Do more to retain your existing customers it's cheaper.

One way to do this is through customer loyalty programs. It's known that customer loyalty programs improve customer retention and increase referrals.

This is common and popular practice because your loyal customers usually spend the most at your business, and already represent the group of people that have already converted.

Getting them to convert again would cause less friction compared to someone who has just started the customer journey with your business. Here's a great read on 10 excellent innovative customer loyalty programs for your inspiration.

3. Collect customer feedback

Do not underestimate the power of collecting customer feedback. Collecting customer feedback is an important step in helping customers.

After all, it's hard to assist people if you don't know what their problems are. And, if you make changes based solely on the business's perspective, you can end up frustrating your customers and increasing your churn rate. Instead, look for timely opportunities to obtain customer feedback, and apply that information to your decision-making going forward.

4. Incorporate live chat

Live chat is a powerful tool that should be added to every customer service team's arsenal. Live chat is a hybrid, allowing reps to efficiently handle a higher case volume. Link customers directly to your knowledge base for quicker solutions.

This creates a better customer experience and reduces the wait stress for customers. Consider this option with caution, as high volume businesses need manpower to carry this out successfully.

5. Add a knowledge base to your website

A knowledge base is used to educate customers on your products and services. It contains support and service articles outlining steps to solve common customer roadblocks. A common way how most companies are approaching their customer service is to provide their customers with an instant location to solve their problems quickly by themselves.

This is especially useful when customers have an inquiry. Customers have the ability to search through the knowledge base to find a solution to their problem. This saves them time and in turn helps to ease the burden for your customer support team. Your customer support team would be focused on solving more complex problems, or to attend to customers which require more attention.

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Discover how we maintain a unique position in our industry that only focus its resources and technical expertises in making the complex internet and messaging platforms are unified, managed, and monitored by a team of 24/7 messaging specialists.

EVERWORKS™ Solutions have successfully assisted, implemented and provided excellent service to prominent clients such as Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), Media Prima Berhad (included TV3, 8TV, HotFM and FlyFM), OSK Berhad, CIMB Bank, AMBank, Hong Leong Bank Berhad, Institute Jantung Negara (IJN), PriceWaterhouse Coopers Malaysia, LIMKOKWING University, GAC Shipping, KLIA Express, AP Land Berhad, City & Guilds, Noritsu and many others.

Learn more

What's your business currently doing to ensure the best service is being delivered to your customers?

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8 Common Mistakes Your Boss Expects You To Know About SEO

Imagine today you have instant access to tools on SEO that would put you in good stead with your boss. How much would you pay for it?

Well.. today you pay nothing for it.

In this article I am going to show you what are the 8 common mistakes that will help you dominate your SEO game.

To start all you need is an open mind, and the will to implement these changes. These tips are not technical, and can be followed through by anyone (even the layman).

What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quality and frequency of organic visits from a search engine.

It goes without saying that SEO is extremely important for any successful inbound lead generation campaign, and it is only logical that it should be approached with some best practices put in place.

SEO changes, and the history of the world's largest search engine Google speaks for itself. There are various factors which affect your website to be found through search.

This article works as a consolidated source which we have experimented on and find useful. 

1. Duplication

A common occurrence is when there is carbon copy content on your website in more than 1 page. It is having the content of about being duplicated in the corporate profile.

Having 2 of the same content on different domain extensions confuses the search engine. This means, the likelihood of your website being recommended on the 1st page on any search engine difficult.

2. Conflicting URLs

Clean up your links. Clean your URLs to show uniformity and structure, because a search engine will struggle to decipher the order of content on your website.

For example, avoid this:

• https://www.everworks.com/dedicated-server/
• https://www.everworks.com/Dedicated-Server/

For the more advanced you can read more about follow links from WordStream

3. Make your website mobile friendly

It has been widely covered that Google will rank websites which are mobile friendly higher compared to websites which aren't mobile friendly.

Google has a great tool here to test how mobile friendly your website is.

4. Sacrificing speed for looks

Speed is important and is a ranking factor on Google. Do not discount on hidden areas of your website which may contribute to your lack of speed. Less visitors, means that your website's speed affects your bottom line.

Here's a quick way for you to instantly improve your SEO.

5. Keyword stuffing

Do not stuff for keywords. Google has explicitly stated that this may affect your ranking on it's webpages.

According to Google, it's the act of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in Google search results.

6. Buying links

There is a strong sentiment within the society about paid link-building, and it's strongly advised that this isn't recommended.

Link-building is a great way to build a strong SEO. Pay attention to the quality of back-links. Rubbish links greatly affects the reputation of your website.

For further reading, we recommend an article from Moz, which covers a great article here about why link-building is important.

7. Forgetting the 'Alt' tag

Although there isn't an emphasis on ALT tags, there is a great opportunity for your photos to appear on search.

This is an alternative source of visitors to your website could be the image search on a search engine.

For example, DSC_001142.jpg compared to "Panasonic-Microwave-Below-Market-Price.jpg".

8. No emphasis on content building

Here's a fantastic resource on all of Google's ranking factors here.

Don't forget, search engines have an objective to deliver relevant, up-to-date, and quality content to people who search.

Conclusion

Commit to a SEO strategy and have faith to do the right things. Over time, optimizing for SEO would do more good for your website than bad.

Although, you are optimising for your SEO, don't forget your readers. Make it an easy experience for them with the right spacing, text separation, font size, etc.

Secret tip: Remember to fix any broken pages (404 pages) with a 301 redirect. You'll thank us later.

What's stopping you from committing to a SEO improvement campaign?

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The Unconventional Guide to Web Hosting

Guess how many people surf the Internet everyday?

Any ideas?

Google alone has 63,000 searches per second. That means 630,000 searches would have already been done, while you were reading these words.

Why should this matter to you? The increasing demand for the Internet - 4.39 billion users - creates opportunities on the web and in tandem the need to deliver these web solutions.

And, in all likelihood, you know web hosting helps you to deliver these web solutions. You are reading this guide to learn which option is best suited for you.

For those who are new, to deliver web solutions, web hosting is required. Simply, your web hosting acts as a storage place for your website, web application, and anything you need to deliver through the web.

There is a lot of confusion when it comes to web hosting because of the options available in the market.

In this guide, you will learn where web hosting differs, how to work around a fixed budget, and ultimately which web hosting option is best suited for you.

Below we will be digging deep into web hosting and to deal with the complexities to follow, systematically. Feel free to skim through to sections which interests you most.

Overview

Before choosing a web hosting option, you first need to know the 6 common options for web hosting you will commonly come across:

Shared hosting	Web hosting you share with other users.
Virtual private server hosting (VPS hosting)	Private web hosting, where you share the infrastructure with other users.
Dedicated server hosting	Exclusive web hosting rented by you.
Cloud hosting	Flexible web hosting allowing you to scale when required.
Managed hosting	Web hosting which provides technical services such as hardware and software setup and configuration, maintenance, hardware replacement, technical support, patching, updating and monitoring.
Colocation hosting	Space you can rent to fully manage your web hosting (hardware, software and services).

To systematically identify which option suits you best, we recommend a framework that you can use to analyze, prepare for, and narrow down almost any situation you may encounter.

To better understand our framework, we've simplified it into 3-steps.

Step 1: Distinguish your needs
Step 2: Narrow down your options (through elimination)
Step 3: Discover your true goal

Step 1: Distinguish your needs

To start, consider the following. What are your core needs?

An analysis of your needs is crucial, because it allows you to define what is the lowest acceptable service you would accept and your highest best option.

Consider the following questions you should be critically assessing:

1. Is your business relatively new?
2. Do you depend on the web solely / partially to carry out its business model?
3. How much speed do you need? How can you determine the amount?
4. How much space do you need? Will you need to push this in the near future?
5. Would you require technical assistance?

Depending on how you assess the above questions, you can frame a needs profile that will form a sheet for you to compare which options to narrow to.

A great read on determining how much speed you need is covered by Jonathan at WhoIsHostingThis.

In summary, estimate the average page site using Pingdom's Load Time test, multiply this value by the average number of visitors, and multiply the result of this with the average number of page views per visitor.

Space largely depends on the nature of business you plan to carry out on the web. Hosting Manual has a great guide on space required here.

Step 2: Narrow down your options

Industry jargon:

• Space = Amount of # GB HDD
• Speed = Amount of # Mbps (also known as bandwidth)

Shared hosting	► Great for new entrants to the worldwide web. ► If your business is relatively new, and only partially depends on the web to carry out your business model. ► There is not much need for space and speed can be at a minimal because of small number of page views.
Virtual private server hosting (VPS hosting)	► The environment for this mimics a Dedicated Server, but shares the features of a Shared Hosting. ► What this means is, the Web Hosting is divided into virtual partitions, however, you still share the physical server with other users. ► Great, if you have been in business for some time and actively using but need more control. ► If you require technical assistance. ► Budget limits or just not willing to pay for the high price of a Dedicated Server Hosting.
Dedicated server hosting	► For you if your business is very matured on the web. ► You expect / continue to see an increase in page views. ► You don't need technical assistance. ► Require full control. ► Enhanced security.
Cloud hosting	► Great for you if you expect your business to scale in space and speed requirements in a short period of time. ► Pay only for what you need (some providers have a base package you can start from). ► You can scale without having to build and maintain your own computing infrastructure.
Managed hosting	► Most web hosting options will likely be managed. ► You should always opt for this if you require technical services such as, hardware setup, software installations, maintenance, hardware replacements, technical support and more.
Colocation hosting	► When you need a large amounts of speed at a lower cost. ► The major disadvantage is you will be left to your own devices (your web hosting is not managed).

Conclusion

The choice of which web hosting option relies on your current situation. This post has provided to you the required framework to choosing a suitable web host.

Where web hosting differs is, in the amount storage space, the level of control, requirements for technical assistance, speed, and reliability.

In the end, which web hosting option did you choose?

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The Hidden Secret to Generating Leads for Beginners

Sales is often generalised as a single activity.

However, to fully understand sales and it's role to your business you must realise that sales isn't a single activity. It is a collection of steps your customer has to take before becoming a paying customer for your business.

This collection of steps is made easy to understand and explained through a Sales Process.

Before you begin with any stage of the Sales Process, I encourage you to find out your sales forecast in 2 steps here.

I've compiled below hidden secrets I wish I knew before I started my own business. It's because I only realised after 3 years, that a consistent flow of leads ensures that business is sustainable and continues to grow.

Below I will cover Stage 1 of the Sales Process.

Hidden Secrets for Beginners to Unlock the Leads Waterfall

Secret 1: Identify Your Target Audience - Learn Who Are Your Potential Customers.

‘Make a Customer, Not a Sale.’ ― Katherine Barchetti. When you rush to make a sale, you forget the person in front of you.

Listen and understand to the needs of your customers. Target your customers, and build your product with the best message to suit their needs.

Great reads and additional resources:

• Hubspot's article here gives great explanations on how other businesses' form strategy to target their audiences.
• Find inspiration on social ads for your business in Hootsuite's great article here.
• Quicksprout has a great article for an in-depth guide on defining your target Audience.

Secret 2: Choose a Promotional Method

After Step 1, you would have understood the preferences of your potential customer. You will need to ensure the benefits of your products are made known to your customers.

A great guide to create your detailed customer avatar here.

Secret 3: Use Social Media as Your Primary Tool

To start, I recommend advertising on Social Media, because you would save a great amount of advertising cost. A great guide I find useful is a LinkedIn marketing plan example covered by Suzanne here (although this is specifically for a financial advisor, I believe it would work for any other profession)

Secret 4: Don't Overlook Email

An alternative for customers which are not tech savvy, consider sending an email instead

• Email Monks covers a great article on Email Marketing myths here.
• Consider various email solutions from Everworks to deliver great emails here.

Lead generation is a continuous process however, with an efficient system in place your business is primed for sustainable future growth.

So are you going to take action to experiment the 4 secrets above?

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