Spring Training for Your Team!

by jim-stein@att.net

Now’s about the time that our never-ending rain will stop. Indeed, the winter storms are subsiding, and as surely as spring follows winter, renewal begins. Spring sets the stage for sunny skies, flowers blooming, birds nesting and new grasses growing. For consumers, moods brighten, house projects are planned, cars are serviced and winter-delayed health appointments are booked. For you, it’s a time to achieve performance numbers, optimize employee skills, satisfy customers and generate more referrals.

For our favorite baseball teams, spring training is a focused opportunity to work on perfecting the fundamentals. We see it time and again: even though these athletes have played ball most of their lives, they need spring training focused on fundamentals to perform at their personal peak level and play as a team.

Spring Training for Your Company
The same holds true for your company, and that’s why I encourage you to take advantage of our Diamond Certified Spring Training (if you qualify for Diamond Certified). Quality Customers are attracted to and influenced by Diamond Certified and most of your competitors haven’t earned it, so presenting your company as Diamond Certified has never been more important. If you qualify for Diamond Certified, we’ll conduct a 30-minute Diamond Certified Spring Training session at your location and turbocharge you and your staff with our highly effective training to increase your sales rate, improve their ability to justify pricing, and learn how to generate more referrals as a team. To beat local competitors, your team must be well-trained and on its game. It’s wise to maximize your usage of Diamond Certified (if you qualify) to differentiate your company as rated Highest in Quality and Helpful Expertise.

Newspapers’ Paid Circulation Plunges to Oblivion
After the Bay Area dailies lost more than 60% of their paid circulation in the period of 2005 to 2014, in the ensuing two years, readership of their printed newspapers has fallen even further, even faster. It’s not surprising to anyone, since virtually the same stories and more are presented for free on the web, so readers have naturally ditched the traditional paid subscription model for the free, “anytime, anywhere” access to the news that the web provides.

With the growing popularity of Diamond Certified, our annual budget—focused on presenting the Diamond Certified Resource to consumers in your local market—has grown over the years and now tops $3 million annually. During this time, we’ve shifted these funds to adapt to consumer behavior. So, instead of running full-page newspaper ads, we now primarily focus these dollars on increasing each Diamond Certified company’s presence through web and mobile presentation and promotion, digital optimizing services, analog demonstration handouts and performances, broadcast media, and, of course, the area’s largest distribution of quarterly print directories that are mailed directly to requesters and high-income households.