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Issue: #38  

July 2011 

Greetings!

 

We can only hope that your business is as hot as this summer! Hopefully, you're gathering momentum that'll take you through the back-to-school, trade show, and Holiday seasons.

 

This month, we feature some entertainment tips for weary travelers, and a way to pour some gasoline on your promotional fire. Enjoy! 

 

IN THIS ISSUE
The Art of Seeding Customers
Music Service Thunderdome
Buds vs. Cans
Jumpstart Your e-Learning

The Art of Seeding Customers 

Man Seeding Remote Controls

During my time at Consumer Electronics manufacturers, we found that seeding salespeople with key products increased sales exponentially. "Seeding" is providing products, cheaply or gratis, for influential people to audition and own. Hard-to-understand product categories and system remotes benefited the most, as salespeople who owned those products were far more likely to recommend them. 

 

Read on for examples of several manufacturers that seed the right way, and one that didn't...

 

  Click to Continue   

Music Service Thunderdome

Rhapsody vs Spotify image

On July 14, celebrated European music service Spotify finally debuted in the USA, giving music lovers more than 12 million songs on demand. We tried the Spotify Premium service. How does it stand up against the similar, identically-priced Rhapsody Premier?   

 

To find out, we put them both into the Music Services Thunderdome. Two entered the Thunderdome; only one emerged. Find out who, in this exhaustive winner-takes-all battle... 

 

  Click to Continue     

Buds vs. Cans: Which Headphone is Better? 

Headphones image

One thing we all have in common is travel. For my coast-to-coast flight marathons, good entertainment is key. And key to good entertainment is a killer set of headphones.   

 

For travelers, which is better...earbuds, or full-size headphones (cans)? Sound quality is at the top of the list, but we also need to consider convenience, noise isolation, and compatibility with a growing variety of portables.

 

Which is better? The answers might surprise you. Check it out... 

 

Click to Continue  

Jumpstart Your e-Learning

Sell-Through Solutions watched an enormous change in the way manufacturers Woman with Laptopapproached training during the recent recession. Cost-cutting put an end to many of the instructor-led, always-on-the-road programs of CE vendors. But, instead of replacing the high-end programs with more economical ones, many companies gutted training altogether, at great cost to their mindshare and reputations.

  

Now that manufacturers again see the value of a strong training program, there's still no way they're going back to Wild West travel days of before. The bottom line is as important as ever. So, many manufacturers are dipping their toes into e-learning as a way to blanket the nation with their message, quickly and economically.

 

The problem is, you can't dip your toe into e-learning. You gotta cannonball into it, full-force. And e-learning isn't porting your instructor-led PowerPoint presentation to the Web. The best e-learning programs leverage every digital asset a manufacturer can muster: imagery, video, sound, narration, interactivity, testing, follow-up, and quantification.

 

If you're ready to get more than your toe in the water, contact Sell-Through Solutions to jumpstart your online training program. With our e-learning and hosting partners, we can leverage the content you have now, adapting it to interactivity, SCORM-compliance, and testing. Or, we can start a new program from scratch, from creating content to hosting your own independent learning site. Let us know how you want to advance! 

 

 

Sell-Through Solutions is the leading provider of training content development and retail sales training support for the world's preeminent Consumer Electronics and computer vendors.

 

Sincerely,

 

Charles Thompson

Sell-Through Solutions, Inc.