Alex Nascimento, Explains BATNA & WATNA Negotiation Tactics

How To SellIn LinkedIn

As LinkedIn’s profile states on its own company page – “LinkedIn takes your professional network online.” With 135M+ users and 11k new members every 90min, Linkedin has dominated the professional social media space as we all know it.

Aside from connecting with past lunch buddies from previous jobs, one might ask “what can a sales person do on LinkedIn?” As I always tell my students, LinkedIn allows you to do the most important business task ever - SELL!

So then, how should one sell via LinkedIn? If I may add another MBA framework, to a world that doesn’t need another self-proclaiming framework, I would like for you to consider “The 5Cs” of How to SellIn LinkedIn:

CONNECT-->CREATE-->COLD-TWEET-->COLLABORATE-->CLOSE

Let me explain…

CONNECT: Just as a sales person needs to leave the office to meet new prospects, he or she also needs to connect with new prospects on-line.

CREATE: In the era where “Content is King,” a sales professional also needs to be a source of knowledge and information. A well-crafted editorial agenda comprised of engaging & “non-salesy” content can position you and your sales team as a credible resource in your industry.

COLD-TWEET: Rule #1 is to never ever cold call on LinkedIn, aka send a request to someone you don’t know, trust me it looks horrible! However, finding a prospect’s Twitter handle, aka username, following them and eventually replying to one of their clever tweets can be a very classy way to start developing a relationship.

COLLABORATE: Get your sales team to cooperate and collaborate on LinkedIn. Develop discussion groups for teammates to exchange contacts, information and insights. Use the team’s collective LinkedIn connections to generate more leads and don’t forget to recommend one another.

CLOSE: Considering that any given prospect has a never-ending number of options at their fingertips, focus on being an expert and educating the prospects before they have a need for a solution. If you manage the process correctly, the prospects will be closing on you instead of the other way around!

So my dear sales friends, I hope this helps you leverage your sales on LinkedIn, and remember, as Aristotle once said, “A friend to all is a friend to none.” With that in mind, go out there and focus on making ONLY relevant LinkedIn connection, sharing your knowledge and the sales will follow!

Don't Stain Your Brand with Greenwash

As I see brands claiming to have won the “Green” award, I would like to share with you a few principles to keep in mind in order to protect your brand from taking home the “Greenwashing” trophy.

• Proof = Truth – All claims should have scientific proof.
• Don’t Hide and Emphasize – Don’t try to hide some facts and emphasize other information. Your audience will notice and the truth behind your message will come to light. Tell the whole story!

• If you are not different, it doesn’t make a difference – If you are claiming something every other company is doing you are not special.
• The Label Matter – Get a neutral and respectable third party organization to endorse your claim/stamp/label.
• Educate your Audience – If you use a term, i.e. Fair Trade, provide a definition on your label for that or any other term and or claim.

As this blog post is dedicated to my UCLA Green Marketing Strategy students, I would like to share and informative video I found on YouTube made by grenkblog.com. Please watch the video and let me know how you would avoid the “Greenwash” trophy.

Can a Chinese Brand make it in America?

I think it can! A great example is Lenovo, who acquired the former IBM PC Company Division for approximately $1.75 billion, and is currently the largest seller of PCs in China with 28.6% market share. The Chinese PC maker was ranked sixth with a 5.6 percent market share in the U.S. market in 2010, with sales outpacing all competitors in the US.

I believe Chinese brands have to do the following to compete in the US Market:

#1- Upgrade quality standards.

#2- Communicate NEW quality standards through better advertisement and promotional efforts.

#3- Develop a customer relationship management system with “the customer is always right” mentality.

#4- Reevaluate their pricing strategy, as we all know it, in America cheap = low quality.

In addition, the Chinese American community represents the largest group of Asian Americans, accounting for 22.4% of the Asian American population in the US. Therefore, utilizing the following Chinese symbols in product development to communicate Chinese heritage can be a competitive advantage in the American market:

Red: For the Chinese, the color red symbolizes good luck and happiness.

Chinese Dragons: A symbol of authority, might and power. Chinese people consider themselves to be descendants of the dragon and proudly communicate that in several forms.

Chinese Characters: There are over 80,000 Chinese characters that illustrate the Chinese culture.

Given that this blog post is dedicated to my dear Global Marketing Strategy students at UCLA, I am interested in knowing what you think a Chinese Brand ought to do to make it in America?

7 MARKETING POWERS

After reading countless BBBs – business boring books - I feel that everything has already been said by someone somewhere. However, if everyone has already heard all the pearls of success, why aren’t we all successful? 

If all those BBBs make total sense, why aren’t we implementing the strategies and tactics to make ourselves or our brand popular or should I say profitable?

As a summary of my marketing studies, I have identified the 7 powers any wannabe marketer, brand manager, CMO, CEO or facebook junkie should develop to break through the noise of media in the 21^st century and create a brand or name for themselves. 

I call them 7 MARKETING POWERS:

POWER #1 – LISTENING

– The power of listening to your clients, company and competitors.

POWER #2 – BRANDING

– The power of creating an iconic brand.

POWER #3 – PERSUASION

– The power of influencing people and storytelling.

POWER #4 – LEADERSHIP

– The power of motivating others.

POWER #5 – STRATEGY

– The power of mapping your way to success.

POWER #6 – EFFICIENCY

– The power of doing.

POWER #7 – NETWORKING

– The power of others.

Understanding and mastering these 7 MARKETING POWERS can be more efficient than an MBA degree, and this is coming from someone who chose that diploma on the wall over a Ferrari in the garage. Trust me, I still dream about cruising in that red convertible.

World Cup Marketing War

In a world where a sense of national pride is suppressed by globalization, the World Cup is the last frontier for a fair global battlefield! After watching every game, including the disappointing Brazil vs. Holland match, I have decided to express my digital point of view about the most simultaneously shared human experience on the planet, the South African World Cup 2010.

Estimates are that 700 Million people watched the final match between “La Furia Roja” and the not so “Clockwork Orange.” Such a massive viewing might explain why we now see national heros and football (soccer) personalities making silly fashion statements – i.e., Maradona’s 2 Hublot watches and players like Davi Villa with more hair gel than Vanila Ice - all in search of mass audience popularity and following.

Speaking of the search for popularity, two power-house brands faced off in a head to head battle, on Facebook, for the “World Followers Cup.” Adidas, the main event sponsor since 1970, set a campaign focused on fan-based match predictions, while Nike created a 10 min advertising viral video showcasing elite international players. 

After the whistle was blown in Johannesburg, the Facebook scoreboard showed Adidas 1,349,560 fans vs. Nike 1,340,220 fans. 

In the battle for fans, Adidas created so much buzz around the official ball, the Jabulani, made by Adidas, that nobody stopped to note that the only players complaining were the Nike sponsored athletes.

So in a billion dollar industry, how could a brand win at the World Cup? According to the social network numbers, Adidas not only picked the winning team, but also the ball and took the entire event.

With that in mind, should we bet your hard-earned money on the teams sponsored by the brand that spends the largest amount of money? I hope that, for the sake of Brazilians, Nike decides to spend all its American dollars in 2014…

PS: Despite the billions of dollars spent on the World Cup Marketing War, in my opinion the video below was the best example of the World Cup spirit. Enjoy!

Facebook = Social Heaven OR Career Suicide

After seeing one of the most successful young executives in my network inform the world via a FB wall update that he was parting ways with current (now ex) employer, I decided to help my other friends avoid a similar potential social networking/career suicide.

Aside from my own personal views on privacy let’s get down to some cold hard facts:

1. Under human-rights legislation, employees DO NOT have the right to confidential use the Internet and e-mail facilities at work. So unless you want the geek in the IT department knowing about your weekend escapades don’t FB at work.
2. Given Google, Yahoo, MySpace, Twitter and other caches, there is a 99.9% danger that anything you put online will never truly die... so don’t post something today that you might regret tomorrow.
3. One of Facebook’s competitive advantages is its OPEN source code, which in plain English means OPEN doors for applications and developers to get access to personal data, user profiles and other personal information that can now be searchable through Google and Bing. Consequently, your private information is not that private anymore.

Now, I bet you are all scared and questions regarding your privacy at work are overloading your brain’s hard drive. Thus, I went ahead and researched more facts about your relationship with your employer regarding your social network privacy. 


Here is a little Q&A for you:

Can my boss stop me from using Facebook or discipline me for using social networking sites during work time? The answer is YES.

Can my boss tell me to close my personal Facebook account? If you are behaving in a way that might be detrimental to the company’s brand image – (s)he surely can.

Can my employer monitor what I’m writing on Facebook while I’m at work? Absolutely (see fact #1 above)!

Can an employer refuse to hire me because of my Facebook profile? Legally no…but how you are going to prove that (s)he is or is not basing the decision upon information they sourced from your profile?

How should my employer approach issues of personal conduct on social networks? Improper posting/ language can count as gross misconduct, and even justify dismissal.

Should I accept a Facebook friend request from my boss? This is a $1 Million Dollar question that I will let you decide based on your relationship.

So how does this tie into personal branding strategy online?

I love FB - I think is a great tool to connect with friends- but I want you to open your mind to the fact that YOU have a professional BRAND and you should treat Facebook and any other social network tools as if they were the front page of The New York Times. Now ask yourself; if you were Coca-Cola, what kind of information would you post on the front page of a newspaper?

P.S.- After scaring you away from posting last weekend’s party pics… check this funny video below…hope you enjoy it…LOL