Boost Your Business : An Expert's Tips

RUSSIAN ADVERTISING DOESN’T HAVE TO BE DIFFICULT

Advertising your business in appropriate Russian language media is difficult, especially for non-Russians. As a specialist advertising agency we do all the work for you. You do not get a discount by going direct so in that sense our services are free of charge.

Is there opportunity in welcoming Russian-speakers to your business? Is the Pope a Catholic? There are an estimated 350 million Russian speakers in Europe. Most Eastern Europeans, especially those over 30-years of age, speak and understand Russian.

You want to set your stall out to Russian speaking buyers? No one can afford to be language parochial. The only objection I ever heard was, ‘I would need to hire Russian-speaking staff.‘

Wrong! Most Russian speakers can get by enough to make themselves stood in English. However a website or advertisement in their language drives home to Russian browsers one very important (and to you, profitable advantage) point. It tells them 1) you welcome Russian speaking customers 2) As a consequence they can presume others of their language use your service.

As in the West there are hundreds of online portals offering a confusing set of packages. Which one is for you?

After much research, Nadia has identified the best online and conventional media for selling to Russian speakers browsing Spain’s property opportunities and related services.

We work with you. Let us know your minimum - maximum budget. We will offer options and recommendations that fit your budget and meet your needs.

accessrussian@yahoo.co.uk

www.michaelwalsh.es

THE MENACE OF ROGUE SALESMEN

Mike Walsh

Salesmen do not normally get a good press, especially the foot in the door types who will not take no for an answer. As with other lines of business, many are attracted to the art of persuasion for the wrong reasons. I have known a few for whom selling was a form of psycho-op with one aim, to get the better of the victim. Unscrupulous salesmen target the timid, the vulnerable, the trusting.

The UK’s Dolphin Bathrooms was part of a large financial house conglomerate. Its only real purpose was to vacuum finance house money through various home improvement companies. Principally these were fitted kitchens, double-glazed windows, fitted bathrooms and bedrooms. The Daily Mail and other Sunday supplements were awash with their expensive full-page advertisements.

These home improvement companies were fronts for finance houses. They harvested profits from providing financial credit to clients. Unsurprisingly, many who needed credit were the same poor devils whose naivety and tough circumstances made them unsuitable for credit agreements.

I went on a Dolphin Bathrooms three-day sales course. It was not an experience I would wish to repeat. On the last day, I told the shocked sales manager who had run the course it wasn’t for me. I needed the money but not at the expense of my conscience. The sales job entailed selling bathroom fittings that would be fitted by freelance sub-contractors.

Of the dozen ‘salesmen’ on the sales course I recall only one had any experience of bathrooms. Like me, most would find wiring an electric plug challenging. Of course, they would when selling appear to be fully conversant with all aspects of the trade. One sales trick was the suggestion that salesmen would be more successful if they were to dress down, to give the impression that they had been supervising on-site work.

The earnings were on a two-tier commission system. If the sale was a cash deal the commission earned was very small. If on the other hand the new bathroom was financed by a finance house the commission was high. For this reason the salesman was programmed to steer buying clients away from cash and towards finance. Repayments over 60 months (sounds better than 5-years) could easily amount to £10,000. This for a bathroom that could be bought and fitted by a local tradesmen for - at the time - about £700.

During the sales course the brainwashing was intense. If the word ‘cash’ was mentioned the class was instructed to leap on their chairs calling out, ‘cash is trash’. If the word ‘finance’ was mentioned then they would be obliged to leap on their seats and to cry out ‘finance is fun.‘

The selling profession has a bad name. In most cases it is undeserved but sadly the commission based system will always attract the unscrupulous.

Mike Walsh : Russian Language Translations : Main Advertising Agents for Moscow and St. Petersburg International Property Portfolios.

quite_write@yahoo.co.uk

PEOPLE BUY PEOPLE

Mike Walsh

For twenty years, I was a commission only salesman. You were either good at your job or you starved. I learnt from experience and sometimes from inspiration. Most of the tricks I picked up were passed on by far better men and women than I would ever be.

Successful salesmen know that people don’t buy products they buy people. If you do not sell yourself then just stop right there, turn on your heel and don’t slam the door on your way out.

Empathy with a client is everything. I could be in a boardroom situation in the morning, chatting with a high-class interior designer in the afternoon then, after dinner, setting out my stall in a roughly spoken builder’s terraced home. Each demands a different approach.

Those who have few people skills, empathy or sales experience often run service trades. They survive because we need them. We buy - they do not sell.

Few builders, roofers, car mechanics, home improvement or repair tradesmen ever pick up a ‘How to be a Successful Salesman’ book or go on a sales course. It sure tells. I met men who were particularly good at their trades. Typical were dry block pavers. Many could not figure out why people paid £50 per square metre for a job they could do equally well for £20 per square metre.

It is the salesman difference. The more expensive jobs were sold by smartly turned out professional salesman. Selling is a skill; it is not as the ignorant would say the gift of the gab. If you cannot empathise with a client, you cannot sell. It is not just product knowledge; it is the ability to create desire.

The poor salesman sells the steak; the good salesman sells the sizzle. It does not stop there; you have to close the sale. This is a skill in itself. I have trebled a salesman’s sales simply by showing him how to close a sale.

Having won the client’s friendship and trust the good salesperson sells not the product but the benefits. With this approach the becomes convinced that the higher price is compensated for it by being better value for money. People don’t buy on price. If they did we would be running around in Ladas.

Here is a tip. You are good at your trade but admittedly not the best when it comes to selling. Put your price up by say 15 per cent then advertise for a commission only salesman to follow up leads and close them. Offer him 15% commission on all sales paid for. You will get more work yet you will spend more time at home with the wife and kids. You have made life easier for yourself, there is much more work coming in, and someone else is employed doing your selling for you.

Michael Walsh and his wife Nadia provide a Russian translation service for businesses. www.michaelwalsh.es

GIRASOL HOMES GOES RUSSIAN

One of Spain’s most successful real estate agencies has given a vote of confidence to Spain in Russia online magazine. Girasol Homes has discovered a cost effective opportunity to capture the attention of Russians keen to get a foot on the property ladder.

Assisted by journalist Mike Walsh and his Russian-speaking wife, Nadezhda, Girasol’s Nigel Salmon describes the pioneering coverage as ‘great’. Spain in Russia focuses exclusively on Russian speakers who are interested in Spain property, news, culture, lifestyle and investment opportunities.

“Similar outlay would buy one week’s half page advert in a local newspaper,” says Mike Walsh. In return Girasol enjoys six months home page exposure and clickable unlimited online space to advertise their company’s products with website links on each page.”

Nadezhda says, “the advertising company’s home page is translated into Russian free of charge, a service which only we offer.”

For further information

Michael Walsh Russian Language Advertising

0034 662 067 490 email

www.michaelwalsh.es

 Michael Walsh

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID

Mike Walsh

Most people agree that a picture tells 1,000 words - they then ignore it.  Much of my work involves working website content. Most descriptive wording is surplus. There seems to be an obsession with stating the glaringly obvious.

Fireplaces (with chimneys - really?). En-suite master bedroom, solarium. A gazebo 4 metres by 5 metres; A garden - a pool, a palm tree, a driveway, balcony, on road parking…

Some of these descriptions are obvious, especially if looking at photographs. What is the point of describing a property’s interior; number and size of rooms, décor and outside if there are ample images?

A typical real estate company has 1,000 property images. Many descriptions average 250 words, which is 205,000 words or THREE PAPERBACKS!  Perhaps content writers think the more you write the more chance of a sale. Many hope their website content does their selling. It does not and is not intended to. That is the salesperson’s job.

What you are doing is giving the client too much information.  Do that and you confuse him. Bemused clients do not make decisions. Very often I can reduce 150 words to thirty words and say more.

Marketing experts have worked it out.  If a client cannot scan and absorb a sales message in less than 8 seconds he will not read it.  My advice was never more than a total of 50 words on a flyer.  Everyone who did so said their investment was good value for money. Well, nearly everyone.

One Welsh businessman insisted on every blind and awning design listed on his A5 flyer. With over 300 words it looked like a photocopy of a BT telephone directory. It failed! Let us end with another sales truism: K.I.S.S. Keep it Simple, Stupid.

By the way I welcome comment. Feel free to put your oar in. Michael Walsh

www.michaelwalsh.es email quite_write@yahoo.co.uk

 Moscow Business Sector

            Do as the Babylonians do.  It seems extraordinary that, operating in the most multinational community in the world, language barriers still separate businesses from potential clients.  Most businesses rely on brochures, advertisements and website content.  However, many Spanish and British owned service suppliers appear to practice language apartheid.  Various Spanish and British owned suppliers market in their own language.  This discourages those whose familiarity with these languages is minimal.

            Scores of businesses recognise that setting one’s stall out in two or three languages can substantially increase profitability. The real estate sector appears to be the most switched on.  Their target is the Russian buyers. 

My Russian-Ukrainian wife Nadia has weeks of work ahead of her. Whilst she is happy to provide a service for all types of business, most of her work is translating property descriptions for estate agents.   An upmarket educational academy, eager to cash in on Russian speaking students, is just one business awaiting her attention.

            The classier restaurants and hotels are catching on too. Russian speakers, there are 350 million of them, spend more per head than do Western Europeans.

            Whilst just 4% of Russians are familiar with the English language most of those holidaying on the Costas, buying or renting property, opening businesses, can get by in English. They are however inclined to use restaurants, property and other services that show an interest in them by at least welcoming them in their own language.

            A point most often made is why advertise for Russian speaking clients when I do not have a Russian-speaking member of the staff?  Excuse my flippancy; the obvious answer is to find one.  There are plenty of them around.

            So why advertise in Russian?  Because if you do not you can bet your life your business rivals will.  They will have a significant advantage. Why? Because all nationalities, including your own, will be prejudiced in favour of those who make them feel welcome - in their own language. - Mike Walsh.

www.michaelwalsh.es