What Kind of Crazy

Topsy-Turvy Business

World is This??

• Market share is the wrong metric, and it doesn't even matter, most of the time
• Your customers--and even your competitors--do a lot of your marketing for you
• The most important sales skill is the opposite of what most salespeople do
• You don't get ahead by cheating, by stabbing others in the back, or by spending thousands or millions of dollars on branding; you get ahead by combining the Magic Triangle -- honesty, integrity, and quality--with an understanding of powerful marketing techniques that have nothing to do with your slogan, logo, or company colors
• The quiet good things your company already does can be the foundation of a whole new way to market

This is the business world of speaker, marketing consultant, and award-winning author Shel Horowitz. And it can be the world of your attendees, too.

(For talks about frugal marketing and book marketing please enter this phrase in your Find window: Selected Topics: Book Marketing/Frugal Marketing )

"I wanted to once again personally thank you for your significant participation at our convention this year... Your keynote address was direct and concise. The message of ethics and integrity was heard and accepted by the attendees and the industry will be better because of it... The convention wouldn't have been the success it was without your involvement."
Jeffrey Armstrong, Officer, Noteworthy USA

Shel is a "marketing heretic" who's been spreading the message of business success through ethics, cooperation, and a "secret sauce" of marketing methods that cost little or nothing to implement, but can grow your business powerfully and ethically

Shel specializes in

• Showing people how ethical, cooperative strategies actually drive business success--that nice guys finish FIRST, not last
• Using the Abundance Principle to turn customers and other stakeholders--even competitors--into marketing ambassadors for you
• Harnessing a wide range of specific tactics and tools for ethical, affordable, and effective marketing. A few among many examples: writing powerful press releases and pitch letters that get noticed and used by top-tier journalism empires like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal...building an unstoppable reputation through Internet discussion groups, social networking websites, and other niche communities...using copywriting techniques that increase the power and results of any ad in any medium...changing the approach of sales calls so that the customer does the selling for you...and many others.
• Helping book authors stand out among the 170,000 or more books published every year--and leverage their established expertise to bring their business to the next level
• Helping writers become published book authors.

Meeting Planners, Please Note: Shel is happy to work with you to design a custom presentation on any of these themes, just for your group.

Selected Topics:
Talks on Ethics, Marketing, and Business Success

Making Corporate Responsibility Sexy: Building and Marketing a Culture of Business Success Through Ethics.

• How to build a stellar reputation that builds powerful referral business, even from competitors--and how not to get the legs knocked out from under you by messing it up (as happened to the CEO of Whole Foods recently)
• How corporate stupidity and lack of social responsibility can kill even very strong companies--whilst accepting responsibility in a crisis can dramatically grow a business
• Why most businesses shouldn't worry about market share--and what they should concern themselves with instead
• Why "nice guys" of either gender finish first, not last
• How ultra-green practices can actually reduce expenses while providing marketing advantages

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How Business Ethics is Like Spinach

Too often, when you get served spinach, you get a shapeless, overcooked, flavorless mess. Yet, when properly prepared, spinach is a gourmet treat that warms the taste buds and makes you feel like spring.

Similarly, ethics is too often forced down the throats of unwilling students and business leaders "because it's good for you." It keeps you out of jail and has lots of vitamins and iron, but it may not feel good, or feel profitable.

Yet ethics, served properly, can be the magic key that unlocks the future of successful, profitable, sustainable businesses. It's not only good for you, it's the gourmet treat that makes it all worthwhile. It builds long-term customer, supplier, and employee relationships that actually make it much easier to succeed, if you understand how to position the enterprise to harness the benefits it creates.

• How a commitment to ethics directly feeds a healthy bottom line
• Why market share is the wrong metric
• What Johnson & Johnson, Saturn, and Nordstrom understand about today's changing business climate that Ford, Tyco, Worldcom and Enron failed to grasp
• How Apple and IBM, GM and Toyota, even FedEx and the US Postal Service grow their enterprises through competitor partnerships and how you can use the same principles to build a business of any size (even a solopreneur)
• What Arthur Andersen would have thought of the fate of the company he founded, and why

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Turning Competitors Into Marketing Allies

Why do some of the biggest and most successful companies collaborate closely with their supposed "enemies"?

We hear over and over again the "wisdom" that business is a cutthroat arena, and that you have to stab your competitors in the back. Well, oddly enough, the reverse is actually true. And that's why we see wildly successful joint ventures among companies who should, according to the conventional wisdom, be sabotaging each other--but who have found it far more beneficial to work together.

Examples:

• General Motors and Toyota jointly brought out the 1986-88 Nova/Corolla and other cars
• IBM, Apple, and Motorola combined forces to develop the PowerPC chip architecture, which powered many computers during the 90s and early 2000s
• FedEx moves USPS express mail across the country in its airplanes--FedEx benefits by selling cargo space and filling planes that might have otherwise flown half-empty--and thus amortizing the costs of fuel, pilots, etc. over a larger load--while the Postal Service benefits by knowing that mail will actually arrive at its facilities in time to guarantee overnight delivery

Even the tiniest businesses can emulate these giant corporations and create successful partnerships with competitors. As one among many examples, I reprint in one of my books an ad from a group of 11 local florists, touting the benefits of getting flowers from a florist in an ad much bigger than any could have afforded alone.

This session will include a hands-on segment where attendees will network and explore partnerships with other attendees for businesses they might start after school.

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Brief Bio

A marketer since 1974, Shel is an expert on affordable, ethical, effective ways to spread your message. Shel embraced the Internet in 1994, and put up his first website in 1996. He now operates nine websites, five webzines, a blog on ethics, and four ezines.

In 2002, in the midst of the business ethics crisis at major corporations, Shel drew on his three decades in marketing to show that it is not only possible to be ethical in business, but that the companies with the highest ethics are actually the most likely to succeed. His sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, was released to critical acclaim in 2003 and won an Apex Award; it has been republished by major houses in India and Mexico. Four of his other books are also on marketing, including Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World and his latest book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers. He's currently working on a new book on these topics, co-authored with the legendary Jay Conrad Levinson and part of Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing series.

Drawing on his success with a local campaign to block an unwanted mountaintop development--which all the "experts" said couldn't be stopped--Shel launched the international Business Ethics Pledge campaign in 2004. His ambitious goal: to create a "tipping point" to end crooked business practices once and for all.

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Selected Topics: Book Marketing/Frugal Marketing

"THANK YOU for being an awesome Presenter and helper to one and all. Hope you will agree to come back for our next conference next October and also perhaps one or two more chat or weeklong sessions again in the near future."
Lea Schizas, Orgnizer, Muse Online Writers Conference

Frugal Marketing 101: How to Slash Your Marketing Costs and Boost Your Results
Successful marketing campaigns don't have to be expensive. Let the author of four low-cost marketing books show you how to...

• Get free publicity in mainstream and alternative media, from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times on down to your local shopper
• Inexpensively set up and promote an effective multipronged Internet presence that extends far beyond just having your own website
• Make excellent contacts at trade shows without even having a booth
• Find ways to actually get paid to do your own marketing

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"On behalf of GNYIPA [Greater New York Independent Publishers Association] I wish to thank you for one of our most stimulating and informative talks. In two years of having speakers, several members told me today after your presentation that this was one of the most accessible and useful. If you ever need anyone to recommend you for your wonderful style and presentation, please send them along to me."
Francine L. Trevens, President, Greater New York Independent Publishers Association

Skyrocket Your Business as Author of Your Own Book
Books are potent marketing tools for any business. Shel Horowitz, author of Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, has published under his own imprint as well as with three major publishers, and has helped several clients not only get their books done but also start their own publishing companies and create marketing momentum for their books. You'll learn...

• Why creating a book is one of the best marketing investments you can make for your business
• Which of the four paths to publishing is right for you
• Why even if you have an outside publisher, the marketing is on your shoulders
• Several strategies to successfully build an audience for your book, at minimal cost

"Shel was the headline speaker at our annual Writers and Publishers workshop last year. For two hours he had the whole audience hanging on his every word and frantically taking notes (in addition to the very large, very informative handout). Everyone left that day excited, inspired and ready to apply Shel's many ideas on how to market their books effectively and frugally."
”Michael Bremer, Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, http://www.baipa.org/

Paths to Publishing Success

In a universe of 200,000-300,000 new titles released each year in the U.S. alone, how will you get your book noticed? As author of Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, Shel knows hundreds of strategies. Depending on participant interest, this workshop might cover...
 

• Seven different strategies to create a book sales website
• How to get tons of free media coverage for your book (hint: it won't necessarily be on the book page)
• 12 ways each to harness the full power of Google and Amazon
• Creative partnership strategies for book marketing beyond bookstores
• How to do successful in-store events