Do you use testimonials, even when you’re not in sales?

Do you have any written testimonials?

This might seem a strange question to some of the readers of this blog. Especially when they are not in sales or don’t own their own company.

Doing business involves building trust, whether you are in a customer-supplier relationship or employer-employee relationship.

This trust building process can be accelerated by having testimonials of other people who had a good experience with you in the past.

That’s why it’s important to ask customers for these testimonials and once you have them use them in your marketing material.
This means: on your website, in your brochure and if you visit customers face-to-face also in your presentation folder.

But also if you are not in sales or don’t have your own company, remains the question: do you keep the “testimonials” you get?
In this case the testimonial could be a written note, postcard, letter or e-mail from your boss, colleague, customer or someone from a company that has a partnership with your company.

Not only you can use these for your next job interview, but they can also be very uplifting to read if you have a bad day !
Have a great networking day !

Jan

Plaxo Pulse

Plaxo has launched a new service: Plaxo Pulse.

If you have already heard of Plaxo it is probably because of their free plug-in for MS Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird. This tool is a good way to keep up-to-date with the contact details of the people from your address book who are also member of Plaxo. And to let them automatically know when one or more of your contact details change.

But now Plaxo also steps into the field of online networking with Plaxo Pulse. It is still in Beta, but it is clear what they want to offer: another online platform like Facebook, LinkedIn, Ecademy, Xing and others.

The functionality that is offered today is what they were already doing (but few people knowing or using it): online access to your address book, calendar, tasks and notes from MS Outlook. Very handy if you don’t have your own computer with you, but have access to the Internet.

The differences is that they improved the user interface and added some new functionality: profile, groups, connections and the possibility to share blogs, YouTube videos and other tools/websites. However this functionality is still very limited.

My opinion at this moment in time: Plaxo has a huge potential because of its large user base, but needs to add some more functionality (especially in profiles and groups) before it becomes a real player in the social networking world.

Have a great networking day !

Jan 

Results of Amazon launch of Let’s Connect

Thank you again for your support to get Let’s Connect to the top of Amazon on October 9, 2007 !

These are the best results we got:

• Number 2 Marketing book (Amazon.com)
• Number 9 Management book (Amazon.com)
•  Number 16 Business Management book (Amazon.com)
• Overall Amazon.com: 176
• Overall Amazon.co.uk: 3715
• English books on Amazon.de: 746

Despite all the problems we encountered on October 9 on Amazon (for example that Let’s Connect is for no reason still in pre-order status) this was a huge success.

Thanks again for your support !

Jan

October 9: Amazon Launch of Let’s Connect

Today is the launch of Let’s Connect. As promised I will keep you posted every hour of the sales rank on Amazon. More information about Let’s Connect (table of contents, testimonials, bonuses, press releases,…): http://www.letsconnectbook.com/

But first let’s see where Let’s Connect came from:

– September 22: position 1,534,227
– September 29: position 581,964
– October 6: position 285,620
– October 7: position 167,120
– October 8: position 26,307

Today (timezone GMT+1):

– 9.00 AM: position 24,432
– 10.00 AM: position 15,910
– 11.00 AM: position 16,730

Update: I was wondering what was happening at 11.00 AM, but when I looked at the websites of Amazon in the UK and Germany I saw Let’s Connect! rise as well on the rankings there. Efforts are divided now over three websites. I’m curious what the effect of this is going to be !

If you haven’t ordered Let’s Connect yet, please do it on Amazon.com.

11.00 AM:
    – Amazon.co.uk: 29,769
    – Amazon.de: 5,578

12.00 AM:
    – Amazon.com: 4,980 and position 43 in Marketing books
    – Amazon.co.uk: 4,473
    – Amazon.de: 746

1.00 PM:
    – Amazon.com: 2,375 and position 19 in Marketing books and 70 in Management books
    – Amazon.co.uk: 5,302
    – Amazon.de: 996

 2.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 1,463 and position 10 in Marketing Books, 43 in Management Books and 88 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 3,715
     – Amazon.de: 1,271

 3.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 1,089 and position 10 in Marketing Books, 37 in Management Books and 77 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 4,593
     – Amazon.de: 421

 4.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 518 and position 3 in Marketing Books, position 19 in Management Books and 39 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 5,682
     – Amazon.de: 522

5.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 323 and position 3 in Marketing Books, position 12 in Management Books and 25 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 6,759
     – Amazon.de: 633

6.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 280 and position 3 in Marketing Books, position 12 in Management Books and 21 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 7,881
     – Amazon.de: 780

7.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 247 and position 2 in Marketing Books, position 10 in Management Books and position 18 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 9,146
     – Amazon.de: 947

8.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 228 and position 3 in Marketing Books, position 11 in Management Books and position 18 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 10,431
     – Amazon.de: 1,079

9.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 194 and position 3 in Marketing Books, position 10 in Management Books and position 17 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 11,685
     – Amazon.de: 1.235

10.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 176 and position 3 in Marketing Books, position 9 in Management Books and position 16 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 13,104
     – Amazon.de: 1.488

11.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 179 and position 2 in Marketing Books, position 9 in Management Books and position 16 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 14,764
     – Amazon.de: 1.748

12.00 PM:
     – Amazon.com: 185 and position 2 in Marketing Books, position 9 in Management Books and position 16 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 16,639
     – Amazon.de: 2.140

1.00 AM:
     – Amazon.com: 188 and position 2 in Marketing Books, position 9 in Management Books and position 16 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 16,639
     – Amazon.de: 2.593

2.00 AM:
     – Amazon.com: 188 and position 2 in Marketing Books, position 9 in Management Books and position 16 in Business Management Books
     – Amazon.co.uk: 16,639
     – Amazon.de: 2.593 

Thanks for helping Let’s Connect climb the Amazon sales rank !

Jan

Launch US version of Let’s Connect on October 9

I’m very excited about the launch of the US version of my network book Let’s Connect on Amazon on Tuesday October 9.

As a foreigner it is not always that easy to get noticed by the US bookstores. That’s why we do an Amazon launch on October 9.

As a reader of this blog there are several ways to help Let’s Connect get into the Amazon top 10:

• Buy the book yourself on October 9 via this link. I know that I ask for a financial effort from your side. I want to “compensate” this by offering lots of bonus material together with more than 30 other organisations. Visit for a description of the book and all the bonus material: http://www.letsconnect.be.
• Send an e-mail to your contacts and ask them to work with us and buy the book on October 9. Of course they are also entitled to all the bonus material. Important is that the bonus material is only available on October 9!
• Write a “testimonial” on Amazon or LinkedIn about the book or me.

Many thanks in advance to help getting Let’s Connect in the Amazon top 10.

On October 9 I will give an hourly update of the ranking, here on this blog.

Have a great networking day !

Jan