Recently, I got the chance to interact with Cindy King, one of the famous international sales specialists with over 25 years of experience. She helps businesses grow in multi-cultural environments and posses exceptional networking and communication skills. Despite her busy schedule, I managed to get her interview. Here are the questions.
Rajeev: Cindy, tell us about yourself and what do you?
Cindy: I’m originally from the Bahamas, but I moved to Europe when I was 18. First to Berne, then Paris and London, and back to France again. I now live in France, just south of Paris, where the Parisian suburbs meet the French countryside, next to the forest of Fontainebleau.
Up until January 2008 I worked in international sales and marketing of various companies: from large multi-nationals to start-ups. Last year, I started my own international marketing company to help mid-sized businesses identify the best way to enter new foreign markets. My company offers 3 types of services:
1. Coaching mid-sized companies: starting from the process of creating their international development strategy through to creating international sales guides to get international clients.
2. Coaching small companies to help them define the international strategy they need.
3. International English copywriting for lead generation marketing materials targeting wide international audiences.
For the international web marketing of my business, I write 2 blogs:
www.CindyKing.biz – This blog is about international skills – to get more international clients through better cross-cultural communication.
www.GetInternationalClients.com – This blog is about international tactics. It gives small to mid-sized businesses an easy 8-step process for international business development.
And I also micro-blog - on Twitter @CindyKing - with an average of about 80-100 tweets a week, mainly tips and links on cultural and international topics.
Rajeev: How has blogging helped your business?
Cindy: Without blogging I would not have an online business. My local market was not ready for my services. So I needed to look for clients in other countries.
I had to put my international web marketing skills into practice for my own business: I published one blog post on both blogs every day in 2008 and also did extensive article marketing. With this blogging strategy:
1. In 3 months I gained enough online visibility to have prospects in foreign countries start contacting me.
2. As I learned more about my international clients and what they needed my online business became better defined – I even discovered some business opportunities I had not thought of.
3. After 6 months I developed my own coaching process based on my own field experience and expertise. This became the backbone for all of my services.
Rajeev: How do you improve your blogging?
Cindy: Blogging is an ongoing process of improving your relationship with your readers. This means that I regularly review my blogging strategy. I don’t have a strict schedule, but at least every 3 months I take an afternoon and review my blogging strategy. I look at what other people are doing and try to implement a new tactic or two to improve my own blogs.
During my last session I read the ProBlogger book. My schedule was busy, so I only decided to follow one of the easy tips in the book. I chose to do a blog post series. My series lasted the month of March. I had a huge surprise. At the end of March the number of visitors to my blog had increased by 92% compared to the previous month.
The result was so great I just had to do something. So I decided to run a little contest. I am asking readers to suggest other series for www.CindyKing.biz. I will send a free copy of the ProBlogger book to the people who send in the 6 best suggestions. The contest is still running.
Rajeev : What is your most important advice for people starting an online business?
Cindy: It’s funny, but I would give the exact same advice as I do for people who want to develop their business internationally.
1. Just do it. One step at a time. Get started. Get curious about creating relationships online.
If you want an online business you need to get involved in the social media platforms:
2. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the others if they are relevant.
Your clients are people. Social media is how you learn how to communicate with people online. You need to get your communication right if you want to get online clients.
In my experience, people need to actively participate in social media for a couple of months before they can say they know what it is. So, just get started. Get active. Stick with it. Learn how to communicate and build relationships online. Then, with your social media communication skills, think strategically about how to build your business online.
Rajeev: What are your plans for the future?
Cindy: There are so many things…
Use my tweets to develop the Useful Resource pages on my personal blog even more.
Upgrade the Get International Clients blog with a change of theme and a membership portion to give small businesses more assistance in developing their international business.
Continue to network offline with the people I meet on Twitter. It is a great way to develop professional networks for online businesses.
More blog post series… and another glance through the ProBlogger book to see what else I should give a try. :)
Thanks Cindy, for sharing all your views . You can also follow her on twitter @CinkyKing.
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