When we first announced that Watt was to speak at the Directors Cut event in Glasgow on the 19^th of November half of the central belt of Scotland said, ‘What a coup to get Watt Nicoll’. The other half went, ‘Who?’

So for those of you who are not privy to business’s best kept secret, then read on as it’s about to be revealed to you.   A little of his personal story is told here and hopefully then you’ll understand why it was so important that we got him as a speaker at one of our events.

In 1997, Watt Nicoll was evaluated by his peer group as the top motivational speaker in the world. Since then he’s just got better and better!

Think of the most famous sports men and women in the world; think football, golf, motor racing; think of the world of celebrity and big name pop stars; think multinational corporations and you can guarantee Watt has had an involvement with them to help them reach their full potential.  And we have him speaking at the Directors Cut!!

When you meet Watt, you would think you are looking at Santa Claus, an elderly gentleman of 75 years of age, going on about 45 and with his silvery white hair and Santa beard to match.  In fact I read somewhere that he looks like a cross between Santa Claus and Billy Connolly (I think the person was referring to his Scottish accent here though).  But don’t be fooled, here is someone with passion and drive ready to impart both into your life and business and has already successfully done it for many people helping them turn their businesses and lives around.

Let’s be brutally honest here, running a business is a tough slog and many of us have had rough rides in keeping ourselves motivated.  It sometimes feels nothing more than a cruel joke.  But on the 19^th of November we are giving you an opportunity to meet with someone who has motivated himself several times in life, who has reinvented himself and has twice make large fortunes along the way in business.

Watt has had a varied and colourful background.  A native of Dundee and friend to Glasgow, many people remember him for being a famous folk singer of the 60’s and 70’s (Google him and see) through then on to being a vet, a speedway rider for the Glasgow Tigers and publicity agent for Miss Scotland.  Along with presenting several TV and radio programmes in the 70’s and 80’s.   Indeed a man of many experiences.

During his time Watt has made a fortune twice through his business ventures.  But one tragic time tested him and set him of on the path that was to end up being what Watt is today a motivated self made man, who turned his life and business around.

Watt lost his first fortune to his business partner and accountant and to add insult to injury his wife left him for the business partner too!    But it didn’t just end there, to top it all he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and had just come through a major operation.  He recalls sitting in little bedsit feeling as low and as vulnerable as someone in his position could and his son thrusting a £10 note into his hand ‘to help him out’.  It was at that moment that Watt said to himself that he would not accept what had happened to and vowed rebuild himself.

That’s just what he did, becoming motivated to rebuild his life and his fortune and in the process becoming one of the top motivational speakers in the world today.  So if you want to hear exactly what he did and how you can get that same motivation to get your business going they I’ll let him tell you how when you accept our invitation to hear, ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’.

Click here to book your place at the Directors Cut event, with special guest Watt Nicoll in Glasgow on the 19th of November.

I think if you were to ask most people why they go into business, it is because they want to be rich (in most cases anyway) or at least have a better lifestyle. And I have always been fascinated about how people build up businesses from scratch and end up growing them to create multi million pound fortunes and empires.

Memo to the marketing manager! Why are you willing to commit thousands of pounds showcasing your wares at a trade exhibition, getting the appropriate exhibition collateral together, yet often ignore that an exhibition presents you with a fantastic opportunity to maximise the enormous PR potential to get you noticed above everyone else in the exhibition hall?

Whether you take a stand at an internationally renowned trade exhibition or a small niche exhibition, you exhibit for one reason. You want to generate new business sales and increase the bottom line!

Having attended hundreds of trade shows across the UK and Europe in the past fifteen or so years, either as a casual observer or creating a strong PR platform for a client, I am amazed that more companies don’t treat the show as a genuine public relations opportunity to get journalists to make a beeline for the exhibition stand.

Take the press office for example. Why get a PR consultancy or in-house person to write and prepare press packs, present them to the show press office or show organisers office and end up binning them after the show has finished?

Realistically, if you produce thirty press packs, you’ll want thirty press packs delivered into the hands of those who want to know more about you and your services.  Ask yourself, why wasn’t yours picked up, read and acted upon?

Equally, product launches and press conferences held during an exhibition should be effectively managed with nothing left to chance.

Here you have a fantastic opportunity to get a strong message across to the media, so you need to be in a position to make the most of it by good liaison with journalists, ensuring their diaries are cleared and don’t clash with other events which may take them elsewhere.

Planning a strong PR platform for your exhibition attendance, should be started a good two-three months before the show starts. Keeping in touch with the exhibition organisers is paramount. If the show is linked to a particular trade sector, then ensure you have a means of checking the editorial forward features list of the trade media, so you can track and monitor the requested editorial deadlines for any show previews.

If you really want to get involved, what are the possibilities of your MD speaking at an exhibition seminar? Speak to the organizers.

The devil is in the detail when it comes to the preparation of press material.

Keep a keen eye on ensuring any press releases, editorial feature material and case studies are genuinely newsworthy. Remember the object of this very important exercise is to attract media attention. You are in the same situation as hundreds of other companies participating at the show, so your information needs to catch the eye quickly and effectively.

If you would rather outsource this to a PR consultancy, take some soundings from a few of them. There are PR companies that specialise in providing exhibition PR support. Their experience will be invaluable to you.

Your budget needs to work hard though, to give you an optimum return on your investment. You must ensure they’ll be proactive, only appoint senior staff to work on your business and have the ability to translate your key messages into a solid exhibition PR strategy that will deliver the required results.

Post exhibition, you’ll want to evaluate your PR strategy and pinpoint the deliverables. With a twin approach of your exhibition stand support staff dealing with ‘on-stand’ enquiries and disseminating sales literature, coupled with a solid PR support platform to drive the awareness campaign, you should generate a good amount of sales enquiries which will keep your sales team busy in the months ahead.

Many businesses and organisations exhibit because participating at a trade show is seen as a core function within the marketing budget spend.

Keep on top of these PR opportunities and its safe to say, your participation should reap the benefit.

Kevin Dorrian, Acumen PR

www.acumen-pr.com

Hark back to when you were in a romantic mood.  You spend time wining and dining your potential loved one.  This goes on for some time, until the day he or she felt they could not live without you and low and behold you end up getting married!!  Well just like romance a business relationship doesn’t happen instantly it all takes time.   Trust and credibility needs to be earned on both sides of the relationship.

But it’s a risk, starting out neither business really knows it each and trust along with credibility needs to be earned.  In building that trust there needs to a willingness to risk being completely open and honest with your clients and customers.   Why?  Simple they then are able to see the real honest business/business person that you are, complete with strengths and weaknesses.

By being open you find that you are perceived as someone with nothing to hide, and your clients don’t feel as though you are pulling the wool over their eyes.  Thus building the trust that is so crucial to getting that business relationship and the ultimate goal, long term business.

It’s an all too common occurrence to base our businesses upon fear of losing business, failure of not delivering and rejection from potential clients.  We don’t always have the right answers or solutions to people’s business problems, but by laying aside our business ‘ghosts’ again make us very open and that is what potential clients see in you as integrity.  Knowing your limitations and knowing exactly who you are and what you and your business is about and not hiding things from clients will be some of true value to your customers.

Potential clients understand you a little because of how you market yourself; your marketing tells them that you are putting yourself forward as a company/person who has knowledge and expertise in your chosen field.   But like a relationship, what companies want to know is do you value them?  As we said earlier, building that trust with your clients is not an overnight thing.  Like in a romance there are things that you have to do to build that trust.

What You Have To Do To Build Business Relationships:-

• Take a real interest in a potential clients business and don’t just tell them about your own.  It’s a bit of a mantra of mine, but people are not interested in your business, they just want to know that you can solve their business problems and knowing their business and what problems needs solved only comes from asking questions about their business.  Your will then and only then understand a potential clients needs.

• When a potential or established client calls or emails you make sure you are thinking of them and call them back or return emails right away or as soon as you can.  It doesn’t matter if you have the answer they are looking for, it shows them that you interested in them.

• Find out what they are up to.  Check out their websites, read about them in trade magazine or publication, and ask to be on their mailing lists.   Call them, meet them and comment on new things that are happening for them.   Tell them well done.  Get them potential business if you can.  But just do it.

• Clients, like in a relationship like to feel that they are the only ones in your life/business.   So don’t go talking about other clients.  You are interested in them remember.  Thank them for their time, and agreeing to meet with you and action straightaway or as soon as you can any points that come out of your meeting.

• Positive people attract positive people, if you carry around with you the weight of the world on your shoulder, it’s the last thing they want to hear as they probably have issues of their own and don’t want to hear about yours.   So keep smiling at them.

• As in life I am sure from time to time your clients do things that annoy you.  But resist the urge to criticise them. The business community can be like a small village sometime and anything negative you say can get round to your client like wildfire.  So if you can’t say anything positive, know when to shut up.

• If you make any mistakes, own up straight away.  Don’t lie, if your client feels they have been lied to, you can bet you pay a hefty price for it.  In the form of lost business or no business at all!!!

So by following these simple ideas your clients will see that you are honest, considerate, polite and have integrity, therefore you should be enjoying a happy and trusting business relationship for many years to come.