In the start of the new conferencing series, How to SELLECOM, we held a general call to telecom agents. On Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, at Noon Eastern time, we will be holding a call on How to SELLECOM: Collocation. It will be hosted by Peter Radizeski at RAD-INFO, Inc. and guest speaker will be Lenny Chesal, CMO at Host.net.

Host.net owns a data center in Boca Raton as well as a network acquired by th epurchases of WebUnited/expedient and WV Fiber.

If you have specific questions, please email them in. We will be talking for about 10 minutes then we will slide into Q&A for 30 minutes. Register via email to peter [at] rad-info dot net or calling 813-496-2122. Bridge info will be emailed to participants on Thursday evening. No charge with the code. ($9.95 otherwise).

I’m doing a panel called Meatball Marketing at ISPCON on May 13. What is Meatball Marketing? Well, according to Seth Godin’s last book, the meatball is the standard average stuff. Since most businesses make average stuff for average people, marketing is required. You can’t get word of mouth marketing unless you are remarkable.

It is easier to market to a niche - a specific target subset of the marketplace, like doctors or lawyers - but most business owners think wide scope instead of narrow. The truth is that most folks won’t hear your message unless you spend Big Bucks. Even then, most won’t respond.

In a targeted campaign, the message can be tailored and specific to the needs of a community of prospects. Better resonation. Think of it this way:

When choosing Adwords to buy, the most general (say Tampa Financial Planner) is more expensive than something more specific (maybe Tampa 401k rollover specialist).

Another example is SEO (search engine optimization). If your keywords are too general, you will be one of millions of pages, so you have to work harder (or spend more) to win the first page. For more specific keywords, you can make it to the top easier and organically.

In Seth’s book, The Dip, the message is to become World’s Best - in a niche.

If you have marketing questions, please email them to me (peter at marketing idea guy dot com).

Once again Jack Brandt and I presented 50 Ideas in 50 Minutes to a packed room at ISPCON (Oct. 2007 in San Jose). If you were not there, you can purchase a copy of the video or the book. Some of the slides can be viewed at SlideShare. The 50 Ideas are in 2 separate Power Point presentations: one called Vision 2007 and one not on SlideShare that you can download from the ISPCON site (if you were an attendee).

The list of 60+ ideas from Orlando can be reached from here. The full list of ideas will end up as an appendix to my book (SELLECOM due out later this year). The DVD of the session will be available soon. Watch for it or email me about it.

The ideas in and of themselves are no big deal. It’s taking one and implementing it that makes it worthwhile. During the talk, I mentioned creating new habits. Jack had mentioned that you should start the day with 2 cold calls. I added that you should Eat That Frog first. Put those 2 items are your calendar every morning and make it a habit. You will productively begin each day — and even if the rest of the day is fighting fires, you still got a jump on a new RGA habit. (RGA = revenue generating activity).

UPDATE: MY book, SELLECOM: 101 Ideas for Marketing in the Telecom Jungle, is now available! Buy one here!