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Marketing Musings: Google Exits Radio?

2009-02-12T16:29:00.001-08:00

Google announced today that they wouldn't be pursuing their transformation plans for traditional radio advertising. That goes some way to answering the questions I pondered two years ago linked here. Having recently pulled back from the same initiative in the world of newspapers, I have think that the future is all about creation of media, rather than the conquering old existing (old) media using new tools. Everything we do on-line is potential media, heck every Tweet is media – those who can organize and sell this media in a way that supports the community rather than interrupts it, will probably win.

Marketing Musings: This App is Stirred, Not Shaken

2008-11-14T18:03:00.000-08:00

Just below I posted about Oakley’s branded surf info application for the iPhone – functional, valuable, interesting, and entertaining – all of which make it a must have branded utility for the target market.

The Quantum of Solace app on the other hand, is nothing more than some widely available movie info crammed into a simple application which has about 1.5 minutes of value to a fan. It is not viral, it is not useful, especially if you already know the plot or have seen the trailer.

What they could have done is a James Bond almanac, or a scene locator that takes you to all the real world places in the movie, or a weapon guide from every James Bond film, or any other insider content that core fans would love, and rave about. Work hard to make your marketing an interesting utility, or don’t do it at all.

Marketing Musings: A New Take on the Prescription Pad: Marketing as Utility

2008-11-12T21:49:00.000-08:00

Mass marketing still works for awareness, IF you have enough money. Obama’s 30 minute infomercial the week before the election cost in excess of $5 million, just for the airtime. If like most businesses, your market is a lot smaller than that, you need to reach out and engage this audience and “utilities” are a great way to do this. Nothing magical here, drug companies have been handing out pens and prescription pads for decades. The question is, how are you putting tools (functional, educational or entertaining) in your customer’s hands so they reach out and touch you everyday?

Oakley just released a very cool iPhone application. They are probably paying Surfline for content and offering it to surfers free. Brilliant. Simple. It is like having a billboard in front of the surf community as they check the waves from the shore, only it is interactive, you can put a new billboard up whenever you feel like it and be sure that it will be relevant to 100% of the audience.

Marketing Musings: The Marketer's Attitude

2008-11-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

Re-posted from Seth Godin's Blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/the-marketers-a.html

Traditional job requirements: show up, sober. Listen to the boss, lift heavy objects.Here's what I

I'd want if I were hiring a marketer:You're relentlessly positive. You can visualize complex projects and imagine alternative possible outcomes. It's one thing to talk about thinking outside the box, it's quite another to have a long history of doing it successfully. You can ride a unicycle, or can read ancient Greek.

Show me that you've taken on and completed audacious projects, and run them as the lead, not as a hanger on. I'm interested in whether you've become the best in the world at something, and completely unimpressed that you are good at following instructions (playing Little League baseball is worth far less than organizing a non-profit organization).

You have charisma in that you easily engage with strangers and actually enjoy selling ideas to others. You are comfortable with ambiguity, and rarely ask for detail or permission. Test, measure, repeat and go work just fine for you.You like to tell stories and you're good at it.

You're good at listening to stories, and using them to change your mind.I'd prefer to hire someone who is largely self-motivated, who finds satisfaction in reaching self-imposed goals, and is willing to regularly raise the bar on those goals.

You're intellectually restless. You care enough about new ideas to read plenty of blogs and books, and you're curious enough about your own ideas that you blog or publish your thoughts for others to react to.

You're an engaging writer and speaker and you can demonstrate how the right visuals can change your story. And you understand that the system is intertwined, that your actions have side effects and you not only care about them but work to make those side effects good ones.The cool thing about this list is that it's not dependent on what you were born with or who you know. Or how much you can lift.

Marketing Musings: Putting Yourself Out of Business

2008-11-05T15:42:00.000-08:00

Every business shifts over time. The landscape changes, business models come and go and people do the same. The same is true for the tactics and relationships that used to be effective; they too must change or in effect, become less effective. The net result if you fail to keep pace? You don’t sound “on your game” when questioned about the best strategy for this moment in time.

There is a tried and true method to avoid this – constantly attempt to put yourself out of business. As you innovate and test and try new things you will come across new business models, new industry contacts and new perspectives on the long term.

Guess what? These are the things your prospect wants to hear about tomorrow.

Marketing Musings: A Paradigm Shift We Can All Learn From

2008-08-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

This month Fast Company profiles the endorsement by Sierra Club (America’s oldest environmental org.) of the new Clorox (a big and historically non-green company!) brand, Green Works.

I haven’t looked into the products yet to understand the authenticity behind all of this. Clearly many loyal members are up in arms about an association with a big, bad brand name like Clorox. What did strike me is a quote from the Sierra Club CEO, Carl Pope.

He said he’d been “…pushing for a shift in mind-set…from a mandate to stop bad things…to one about making good things happen.”

Wow. Talk about opening up your mind and looking at a challenge in a new way. It struck me that many trade union leaders, had they been able to make such a shift, may be far more relevant in today’s labor market.

The full article is here.

Marketing Musings: Those Crazy Olympics Commercials...

2008-08-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

Any votes for the worst commercials so far? For a few days Subway were in the lead position with this me too QSR gaming effort – if you are going to do it, don’t spend $50 bucks on the production. It is so amateur for a company with a multibillion dollar turnover.

As a quick aside, many Subway stores are introducing frozen pizza which is blasted in a high powered convection oven. No word yet on how these fit into the signature tag line, Eat Fresh…

Luckily for Subway GE has come through with an even more ridiculous production that this time, did not lack money, just imagination (which ironically forms part of their logo on many occasions.) Global warming and the energy crisis are two of the most visible issues facing humanity. Pulling from an Al Gore presentation or educating the public on wind and its viability was the way to go. Nope – the Olympics should be light hearted so let’s create an association between the first Olympics and our modern product, and make it really funny (which is course it isn’t) seemed to be the order from above.

Result = lost opportunity, waste of money and I suspect I am the only one talking about GE or the wind towers.

What else am I missing?

Marketing Musings: Why Do Rabid Fans Wear Lycra?

2008-08-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed what rabid fans semi-serious cyclists are? Seriously, many look like they just finished a stage in the in Tour de France and its well accepted. What’s weird is you don’t see the same dedication to purity in other sports.

When was the last time you saw someone dressed in full football or baseball kit heading for a casual weekend game? I am not sure what it is but if I were in charge of apparel licensing for other sports I’d be trying to work it out!

Marketing Musings: Treat Receipts

2008-07-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

Starbucks are running a sales promotion which is not something I've seen them do before. It’s pretty smart; I guess they know people only come in once a day for a $5 Frappacino. It looks like they also know these people don’t have $10, but maybe they have $7? Will be interesting to see the results.

Random Quotes - Head for the Hills

2008-07-16T14:08:00.001-07:00

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

T.S. Eliot

Marketing Musings: Practice What You Preach

2008-07-16T08:50:00.001-07:00

If you are running a seminar or other event the very least you can do is remove people from your marketing list that have already registered. Getting emails saying “Hurry act now before all the seats are gone” when you have already booked and paid can be fairly weird the first time (did my booking go through?) but by the fifth email, you realize this company you are going to lean from just has no logic at all in their marketing system – you might even think about asking for your money back.

Marketing Musings: How to Annoy Your Customers

2008-07-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

Anyone remember DVD region coding? It’s the annoying, consumer unfriendly technology that entertainment companies put in place as DVD’s proliferated. Its only purpose: stop people sharing digital media throughout the world.

This week a friend in Australia sent me a DVD with documentary he thought I’d find interesting. He paid for it, and put it in the mail. Sadly it wouldn’t play in the US thanks to the region coding which really highlighted for me how flawed these attempts at control really are. First of all they annoy consumers and secondly, they create a black market for the products. Why wouldn’t I now jump not some file sharing service to see the documentary? Because I might get sued. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.

DRM sucks, is consumer unfriendly and fast looking like stupidity for any company that still considers it a viable way to control their business.

Marketing Musings: Victory in Greek

2008-07-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

I heard Dan Weiden of Weiden + Kennedy talking about Nike and their advertising in 2008 (and beyond.) He made the comment that things have not changed that much for Nike and that Nike were still “…instilling aspirations rather than catering to consumer desires.”

Seems backward in this day of “consumer in control” but the company has never been more successful. Much of their digital work has gone to AKQA and R/GA over the years and they’ve generated some fantastic multi-channel campaigns and services. Many of these have kept Nike at the front of the pack but all this had me wondering if it is even possible to build a global brand around products today?

Is it too expensive? Do you have to run 250 digital services in parallel, each reaching different niches? How many staff does that require versus the staff required to build amazing 30 second TV spots in the ‘90’s? Nike has authenticity which is the critical building block for any sustainable business. I’d love a crystal ball to see what their marketing will look like in 2015.

Marketing Musings: Publishers Must Rebuild or Perish

2008-07-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

I saw a good post from Barry Chu recently that outlines the modern advertising value chain and zeroes in on why Google and Facebook will continue to dominate. The post covers a topic near and dear to my heart – making sense of the marketing ecosystem. I agreed with most of what Barry said but one area could do with expansion – that is, the whole concept of what it means to be a publisher in 2008. Guns and Ammo magazine is used as an example but let’s face it, any attempt to aggregate an audience around a topic that is collated and edited and pushed to an audience is more or less finished, especially in terms of advertising dollars.

Everything “publishers” build going forward needs to be consumer driven, or initiated, or pulled. Barry hinted at this when he spoke of enhancing the knowledge around “intent” of a consumer. I believe in this to an extent but ultimately I think services need to be architected this way from the start. Publishers who lack this knowledge of intent need to rebuild a service the new way then kill off their old offering, not tweak the old version.

So my test for a modern “publisher” is:

Does the service put the user in charge of the interaction, on their terms?
Is a value exchange with the user inherent in the service?
When customers are using the service, does the publisher absolutely understand the intention of their attention?
As a result of the service, does the publisher learn more about the customer (i.e if they sell them a ring tone or article covering global warming, they really don’t. The point is, such a transaction is not a value exchange and the publisher can’t claim this consumer is a targetable entity going forward.)

Marketing Musings: Things to Know About Marketing

2008-05-14T14:57:00.001-07:00

Seth Godin just re-published his list of things “he knows for sure” about marketing…my 9 favorites are:

Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
Products that are remarkable get talked about.
Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.

Here is the full list: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/05/what-do-you-kno.html

Marketing Musing: Coldplay on the Future

2008-05-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that music as a business is not only in decline, but also a big mess. I saw this in Billboard Magazine and loved Chris Martin’s light hearted evaluation of the situation:

“Being on a label at the moment is like living in your grandparents’ house,” he says. “Everyone knows they need to move out, and they will eventually, but we kind of like our grandmother…”

Marketing Musings: Avoiding the Passion Pop Gulf

2008-05-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

This post from Seth Godin caught my eye as it captures perfectly the conundrum at Gap, the retailer that’s been struggling for years to get out of the “Gulf.”

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/05/avoiding-the-pa.html

Can you be remain authentic and ever scale say nationwide, or globally? Nike has done a good job, serving the truly dedicated through NikeID while increasing their mass market share. Are there other good examples of this?

Marketing Musings: What's the Intention of Attention?

2008-05-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

Way back in April 07 I talked about being authentic; drawing inspiration from Naomi Klein (who ironically has a great message for marketers) I argue that without a firm commitment to solve real customer problems your marketing is reduced to attempts (often sad) at drawing attention to your products or services. Seth Godin lives and breathes this stuff and true to form, gives his thoughts and views on marketing and authenticity his own “Purple Cow” treatment – meaning he differentiates his message through his Purple Cow metaphor and rises above the noise.

Sadly, at times I still feel like a dog chasing its tail when I try to think through marketing in 2008. A few things we know for sure:

If you are not solving problems, if you are not authentic, you are already way behind the 8 ball.
You have to bake your genuine solution to real problems into your offering from day one, with all the marketing help there from the start, or else.
Social Internet services like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace continue to draw in more people.
Getting noticed on-line is not that difficult but if there is no genuine follow-through, all you have is a nice chart to frame.
You can still reach people via TV (Obama says you can’t expect to ever be President without the TV budget) but it is far too expensive and mass market for most business owners.
Other methods of advertising are flat, if not in decline, and response rates are appalling.

So where to from here, how do I stop chasing my tail and get on with business? I was at a conference last week where one of the speakers stated “...you need to understand the intention of the attention.” When you think about it, this is an ultra-simple sniff test for any marketing you do from this day forward. Why is the audience attracted to this video clip or reading this email, or listening to this radio ad or chatting on-line for example?

The rush to carve off ad dollars for digital has resulted in a lot of misses – that’s to be expected in the early days but companies should not be repeating these mistakes. Let’s try to guess the intention of some popular 2008 activities:

Chatting on IM with friends – communicate, catch-up, laugh, cry and have fun.
Reading emails using Gmail - communicate, catch-up, laugh, cry and have fun.
Checking a YouTube video a classmate told you about – laugh, cry, learn and have fun.
Looking at a friend’s weekend party pics on Facebook - communicate, catch-up, laugh, cry and have fun.

The public are not listening anymore; they are doing fun things they enjoy on-line. So that’s the test: Is the intention of my audience aligning with my goals as a marketer, on-line or otherwise?

Given most of the traditional ad mediums are very hard to measure accurately, what’s a marketer to do? Go fully on-line and seek out relevant communities for your offering right? Well to complicate matters a little more, the majority of people are still off-line (i.e the real world) 18 hours a day although this is blurred by Blackberrys, iPhones, phone calls, text message and mobile web pages. Bear in mind how this might affect intention.

If your offering is not differentiated and you’re battling others in a commodity business then your only option is to outspend – the race to the bottom. As Naomi Klein asked:

…do you have a “communications problem” or a “reality problem?”

Seek out and spend, but only on those platforms and services that pass the intention test. Anything else is a waste of your hard earned money.

But I sell blenders, show me my audience?

Yes Blendtec’s audience is mass market, but their product differentiation is the star of the show in this example. They are perhaps the best example of innovation before marketing – after all, their marketing is simply turning on their machine and making a video of it.

From Inc. Magazine: “In one memorable spot, he takes an iPhone, throws it in his blender, and watches approvingly as it disappears in a puff of black smoke. The catchphrase "Yes, it blends!" then appears on the screen. Since the video series debuted on YouTube, retail sales of the company's blenders have grown fivefold, to an estimated $10 million, up from $2 million in 2006. The original run of five videos cost only $50 to produce and has been viewed more than 35 million times on YouTube.”

Steve Jobs says Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. I say, “Be an Authentic Problem Solver, and Understand the Intention of the Attention.”

Marketing Musings: Don't Be a Wooden Waiter

2008-04-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

Note to servers all over America. Leave me alone.

Back when tipping was actually optional hospitality staff had to work as hard as possible to maximize their income. The problem today is that tips are expected and let’s face it, most people tip almost 20% regardless of how the service actually was.

So you are going to get the 20%, all you have to do is be nice. Stay out of the way, don’t interrupt every 8 minutes – we really are OK and if the food does happen to suck, we’ll let you know. Be there when we are looking around, and make it personal. Check on our meals for sure and remember who ordered what.

While I am whining, what ever happened to leaving plates on the table until everyone has finished eating? I’ve been at more than a few places where I am the only one still eating and my friends are being offered a dessert menu.

Truth is I don’t blame you I blame the person who owns the restaurant. They should be focusing on the customer experience and stopping you (called training!) from asking canned questions that no diner every seriously answers. You know them -“are we doing OK here?” … “Sure, thanks (go away, I just lost my train of thought because of you) – sound familiar?

Starting today, throw out the very notion of what you think it means to serve and be attentive. The owner might even notice; even if she doesn’t, someone will, and you’ll be soon on your way.

Marketing Musings: Jobs on Life

2008-04-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

Still one of the best speeches I have ever heard - life is short. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Marketing Musings: No More Wrap Parties?

2008-04-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Since Facebook opened up its platform to third party developers over 16000 apps have been thrust upon the membership. A whole new industry sprang up not just in the development of the apps, but also the marketing and optimization of them, many of which are already marketing initiatives in themselves. The old advertising model ADIA (Attention Interest Desire Action) is still very much in play:

Get a Facebook user’s attention and interest, build enough desire to actually interact with your service then, have them take action, preferably in the form of inviting other friends.

What is a little crazy (as in good crazy) is just how measurable this medium has become. Many months ago I wrote that there was nowhere to hide in this new world of marketing. Everything is measurable to the nth degree and clients are increasingly understanding this, and therefore not only demanding the statistics but of course, asking why they are not higher/lower/declining/inclining etc etc.

That an electronic medium is more measurable is not exactly CNN material. What is interesting is that the entire planning/creative/production model is history. It is being replaced with a series of planning / creative/ production cycles that are constantly repeated throughout the initiative’s life. In other words, you no longer spend 6 months planning and designing a campaign which is then thrust upon the world in “set and forget” mode (with results possibly dissected a few months later); today you get what you can out there and using real time numbers you review, tweak, alter, update, enhance “on the fly” so that your actions of the past 24 hours are potentially altering your prospect’s behavior in real time.

This new world is labor intensive for the folks working on "the campaign” and certainly not news to Google advertisers – after all, they have been able to change their text based ads on the fly for years – but this “on the flyism” has infiltrated all aspects of on-line marketing and has been exposed so granularly by the massive Facebook user base and the ability to see how in real time, changes to these apps can dramatically affect your end goal.

Marketing Musings: One Extra Long Period of Silence and a Nice Coffee Please!

2008-03-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

In case you have not seen the news, Howard Schultz is back to save Starbucks. One of the words I keep hearing him use is “romance.” When I think of coffee and romance together I get a mental image of a quite, little coffee store with an unassuming little man in a white coat serving me the perfect espresso.

I was sitting in a Starbucks the other day trying to have a quick meeting with a business colleague and the noise was almost deafening – “non-fat, extra hot double tall latte” a barista would yell followed by “Cinnamon Dolce Frappuccino with a triple shot and light ice” topped off by a double rendition of “Honey Latte, light whip, extra honey with a triple shot”…..arrrrghhhhh

If Mr Schultz is hell bent on using the Burger King (have it your way!) USP as his platform for growth fine (well not really, but that is another post) – but stop talking about romance. All the shouting and pandering is as far from romance as Saw III is to Gone with the Wind.

Do you think of romance when you walk into Starbucks today?

Marketing Musings: Ticking Your Way to Millions

2008-02-29T11:01:00.000-08:00

Back in Week 48 I talked about the power of systems and how simple checklists for each and every task in your business can help tremendously with the entire service or product delivery process. This month in Fast Company Magazine, the authors of Made to Stick highlight some amazing benefits of a simple checklist - here's an excerpt:

The holy grail of checklists may be the one created by Dr. Peter Pronovost of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Intensive-care units (ICUs) often use intravenous lines to deliver medication, and these lines can become infected, causing nasty health complications. Pronovost, frustrated by these preventable events, compiled a five-step checklist.

The checklist contained straightforward advice: Doctors should wash their hands before inserting an IV, a patient's skin should be cleaned with antiseptic at the point of insertion, and so forth. There was no new science and nothing controversial--only the results were surprising.

When Michigan ICUs put the checklist into practice over a period of 18 months, line infections were virtually eliminated, saving the hospitals an estimated $175 million, because they no longer had to treat the associated complications. Oh, and it saved about 1,500 lives.

Amazing right? Simple right? The same Dr Provonost goes on to say:

People fear checklists because they see them as dehumanizing. Maybe that's because people associate them with the exhaustive lists that let random teenagers successfully run fast-food chains. They think if something is simple enough to be broken down into discrete steps, a monkey can do it. Well, if that's true, grab a pilot's checklist, and try your luck with a 767.

Then warns:

Even if you're sold on the value, beware checklist creep. A checklist doesn't mean huge binders full of obsessive and likely counterproductive ISO 9000-style process documentation. As Pronovost says, "One mistake I've seen in health care is that people will produce these 200-page process guidelines that nobody ever reads." You're not trying to create a high-resolution photograph of the status quo. In fact, if the status quo worked perfectly, you wouldn't need a checklist, you'd need a bonus.

Checklists simply make big screwups less likely. "We wanted people to standardize on the mission-critical elements--the areas where we have the strongest evidence," Pronovost says. "And these things that are mission critical, we've got to do them every time."

Where could your business benefit from a checklist?

Full article @ Fast Company

Marketing Musings: Apples 5-Star Retailing

2008-02-21T14:55:00.001-08:00

Ron Johnson, the Senior VP of retail sales at Apple, recently talked to Associated Press about retail strategy. The strategy draws heavily from the workbook of luxury retail but also from other areas.

Key elements include the elimination of checkout stations which has created a less sales-oriented feeling (and counter-intuitively boosted sales), the introduction of the concierge service, and the store design, based on a library format, which aims to makes people feel like they belong.

“We try to pattern the feeling to a five-star hotel. It’s not about selling. It’s about creating a place where you belong.” — Ron Johnson

Marketing Musings: United, It's The Service Stupid

2008-02-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

What are United Airlines missing these days? Nah, I don’t mean seats that actually have cushioning, food that you can eat (in First Class) or flights that are not cancelled, I am talking about hospitality. The raw basics of dealing with paying customers in a way that has proven over time to attract, retain and generally delight them. Now an enterprise as large as United is always going to make mistakes and have things just go plain wrong, but the way they deal with these problems has descended to a point where it is barely recognizable as customer service.
Turning again to Danny Meyer’s book Setting the Table, he gives us “Five A’s for Effectively Addressing Mistakes”. Let’s take a look:

Awareness – Many mistakes go unaddressed because no one is even aware they have happened. If you’re not aware, you’re nowhere.
Acknowledgement – “Our server had an accident, and we are going to prepare a new plate for you as quickly as possible:
Apology – “I am sorry this happened to you.” Alibis are not one fo the Five A’s. It is not appropriate or useful to make excuses (“We’re short staffed.”)
Action – “Please enjoy this for now. We’ll have your fresh order out in just a few minutes.” Say what you are going to do to make amends and follow through.
Additional Generosity – “Unless the mistake has something to do with slow timing, I would have my staff send out something additional…Some more serious mistakes warrant a complimentary dish or meal.

Now let’s run United “customer service” through the Five A’s:

Awareness – with fewer staff and an attitude of “you get what you pay for” most staff are not actively seeking to fulfill on a promise of hospitality. Doing the minimum has become the norm which means there are very few opportunities even discovered to delight customers.
Acknowledgement – following on from awareness, you can’t acknowledge what you don’t know about.
Apology – whilst canned apologies are the norm, excuses are rife. There is a reason behind everything but it is never a personal apology that customers receive.
Action – without any provisions, coupons for discounts on food, beverage or flights, or other “we messed up “ rewards United staff are simply not empowered to take any action. A broken seat? Sorry, there are no other spare seats and nothing else we can do for you.
Additional Generosity – unless it’s due to United overbooking a flight, I have not seen an act of outbound generosity in many years.

But United are still recovering from bankruptcy I hear you say…that is true and the organization itself is undergoing a massive shift. But when it is all said and done, customer service is what keeps people coming back and United need to hire a VP from Danny Meyer’s restaurant group before it’s all too late...

Marketing Musings: Setting the Table

2008-02-15T10:40:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine just lent me a booked called Setting the Table by Danny Meyer. Danny is a successful restaurateur/entrepreneur in New York City who has been in business since the 80’s and now has over 10 highly successful hospitality businesses. What I liked best about Setting the Table was Danny’s approach to customer service – no excuses are tolerated for service that is not first class. In Week 39 I asked if it were possible to systematize employee behavior. Danny has moved on from this – the system is the culture in his group and through proper training, every employee understands what they need to do. This excerpt from the book illustrates the somewhat empowered environment and how at the same time, the business is present for every customer:

“Hospitality cannot flow from a monologue. I instruct my staff members to figure out whatever it takes to make guest feel and understand that we are in their corner. I don’t tell staff precisely what to do or say in every scenario, though I do have some pet peeves that I don’t ever want to hear in our dining rooms. I cringe when a waiter asks, “How is everything?” That’s an empty question that will get an empty response. Also, I can’t stand the use of we to mean you, as in “How are we doing so far?” I abhor the question, “Are you still working on the lamb?” If the guest has been working on the lamb, it probably wasn’t very tender or very good in the first place. And if a guest says “Thank you” for something, the waiter should not answer, “No problem.” Since when is it necessary to deny that delivering excellent service is a “problem”? A genuine “You’re welcome” is always the appropriate response.”

Setting the Table, Danny Meyer.

Marketing Musings: Is the Tipping Point Toast?

2008-01-21T15:24:00.000-08:00

Finding your audience in this fragmented media environment driving you crazy? You just have to find influencers right? Wrong… according to an Aussie researcher now working at Yahoo. Definitely an interesting position in this “Tipping Point” focused world.

Here is an excerpt:

Gladwell's book laid out many other factors that can "tip" a trend. He described other influential types: Mavens, who love to collect information and help others make decisions, and suave Salesmen of ideas. In order to spread, an idea or product had to be "sticky," and appear in a fertile social context. But as The Tipping Point climbed the charts, marketers fixated on Gladwell's Law of the Few, his suggestion that rare, highly connected people shape the world. For anyone involved in pitchmanship, it was an electrifying notion, one that took a highly complex phenomenon--the spread of memes through society--and made it simple. Reach the gatekeepers, and you reach the world.

Marketers seized on Malcolm Gladwell's "Law of the Few," his suggestion That rare, highly connected people shape the world. But Watts, for one, didn't think the gatekeeper model was true. It certainly didn't match what he'd found studying networks. So he decided to test it in the real world by remounting the Milgram experiment on a massive scale. In 2001, Watts used a Web site to recruit about 61,000 people, then asked them to ferry messages to 18 targets worldwide. Sure enough, he found that Milgram was right: The average length of the chain was roughly six links. But when he examined these pathways, he found that "hubs"--highly connected people--weren't crucial. Sure, they existed. But only 5% of the email messages passed through one of these superconnectors. The rest of the messages moved through society in much more democratic paths, zipping from one weakly connected individual to another, until they arrived at the target.

The full Fast Company article is here.

Marketing Musings: It's the Details!

2008-01-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

Do the details really matter? Throughout the Weekly Program I have repeated just how important attention to detail is and why you must constantly revisit, refine and communicate. But why you ask? Instinctively we all like a clean environment, courteous staff and prompt service but is that the real reason to put so much effort into the “details”?

Last night I read one of the most profound statements I have seen in years. The author is Dr Paddi Lund and the book is called “The Absolutely Critical Non-Essentials”. Paddi captures the “details” dilemma in just 18 amazing words….

“Customers judge your expertise in areas they do not understand by your excellence in areas which they do”.

Wow.

You mean all this time I have been focusing ALL of my effort on being a mechanic /baker/ electrician/ accountant (the list goes on!) my customers have been judging me by the sign hanging out front, the quality of the coffee I serve them, the waiting room magazines, the oil stained carpet (this list also goes on!)?

In a word, Yep. Revisit Week 42. I’ve called it “not falling at the last hurdle” but from here out think of all these things as Critical Non-Essentials.

Week 52 - Say + Look + Do = Reputation, Farewell

2007-12-26T15:03:00.000-08:00

This is the 52nd and final installment of a program of change for your small business. Throughout the year I have shown how an organized approach to assessing “where am I” through to figuring out what you want and finally how to get it is the key to your freedom; freedom to choose, be that to sell your business for a great price, franchise, or simply not have to turn up seven days per week.

Along the way there are soft things (how do you treat your employees) through to hard programs (number of leads x your conversion rate x average sale for example) that need to be worked into your on-going review process to ensure you are constantly improving.

If there is one secret to improving your lot in this small business life it’s this commitment to constant improvement. As I have said the Japanese call this Kaizen and it has helped propel many of their firms into market leading positions worldwide. Let’s face it, you don’t have to be the smartest, or the fastest, or the cheapest. You simply have to thrill your customers and this thrill is relative to their expectations. How do you know what they expect if you are not looking outside your business?

In this world where many businesses are commoditized by a Google search we can’t forget the basics – they are probably more important than ever. THRILL YOUR CUSTOMERS, have your friendly, engaged staff selling as many prospects as much as they need helping them to achieve their own goals. Work with experts on your Google ranking and your PR efforts but never assume these in isolation will fix anything. Sure you could get a spike in orders from a great Internet campaign but if you don’t thrill the shoppers, you have wasted your money. The same goes for a newspaper article on your company. What have you really achieved unless you attract more qualified prospects and convert them into lifetime customers?

It would be right if I didn’t end with my favorite business mantra from OOCL Chairman C.C. Tung.

SAY + LOOK + DO = REPUTATION.

Say = how you and your employees project your policies and procedures
Look = how your business appears or is perceived by the public
Do = how you and your employees carry out your policies and procedures, thrilling the customer in a profitable manner.

As I’ve just said above, it all adds up to Reputation which is more important than ever. Whether being reflected on-line via customer reviews or spread around the local pub, it’s your lifeblood, pay attention.

I wish you the very best and hope I have helped to Change your Business, Change Your Life. I’ll be posting almost every week from here on but the posts will be focused on marketing things great (and not so great). You can always find the weekly small business program stuff in the archive, it’s up here forever.

Marketing Musings: Batteries and Cooking Measurements...

2007-12-26T14:04:00.000-08:00

Innovation and design are quietly emerging as the powerhouse differentiators of the early 21st century. Without great products that change the way we look at the functions they perform, you are treading water. “Me too” is perhaps a more dangerous positioning that ever given you are just a mouse click away from being overlooked.

Two recent innovations caught my eye. The first is the Black and Decker battery charger, you plug it into the lighter socket if you ever have a flat battery and it will provide the power to get you started – why didn’t I think of that comes to mind.

Seriously, every now and then a company’s willingness to solve a problem intersects with the latest technical know how and constraints resulting in a change in how we view such issues. In ten years I expect auto makers will include this thing somewhere in the chassis and it will seem weird to ever have a flat battery situation again.

The second is this Oxo Measuring Jug. Notice anything different? Rather than bend down to look at the level, it shows you from above. This is market leading, patentable innovation at its best. I love it.

Marketing Musings: Engage, engage, engage

2007-12-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

Very cool - engagement and word of mouth, two key cornerstones of any marketing these days...

Billboard Whispers into Pedestrians’ Ears for A&E’s ‘Paranormal State’

An ad for A&E ghost-themed series Paranormal State uses technology to transmit an “audio spotlight” from a rooftop speaker in New York’s SoHo directly to the ears of passersby.
Pedestrians on Prince Street might hear a voice asking, directly in their ears, “Who’s there? Who’s there?” a few seconds later, the voice says, “It’s not your imagination,” writes AdAge.

The technology, created for museums and libraries and other environments that require quiet, is manufactured by Holosonics, which provides sound in a narrow beam, just like light.
A&E is using other unusual tactics in its $3 million to $5 million campaign to promote Paranormal State. In Los Angeles, a mechanical face emerges from a billboard as people walk by.

In print ads, AM New York flipped its gossip section upside down for Paranormal State, while this week’s Parade included a checkerboard of ads for the series.

Marketing Musings: Marketing's Dead - Work With It

2007-12-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

Where in the world is marketing going? I fast forward or mute all TV ads, listen to satellite radio in the car and generally ignore everything that shows up in the mailbox. What about online? When is the last time you eve clicked on a banner ad? What about a text link next to a search result. Obvioulsy people do it (look at Google’s earnings) but I am not sure how sustainable it is.

I recently read a Forrester report “Marketings New Key Metric: Engagement” which I can finally relate to. First they show the traditional marketing funnel:

But then they show what it has become:

What’s interesting is how 3 of the 4 “disrupters” they have shown in the second diagram are “word of mouth” related. As media continues to fragment further I suggest that marketing in general is dead in the water and that all businesses small or large should get back to basics. That is:

Provide a fantastic, memorable product or service
Back it up with fantastic programs to turn your customers into fans

If you can achieve this, ALL of your marketing dollars should be funneled into word of mouth enhancements. Capitalize on your success as a business. Generate awareness through your loyal network of satisfied customers. Don’t waste money chasing the general public who are almost impossible to reach these days and even if you do, there is no personal context so they will cast aside your message.

Marketing Musings: Some Vacuum Cleaners Suck

2007-12-02T17:40:00.000-08:00

Just how important is it to move with the times? In my opinion change is everything and ignoring what’s going on in your industry because you are in love with your product or service seals your long term fate. I talked about this in more depth back in Week 27 and previously I also mentioned James Dyson and his approach to winning in business. Disclaimer: Dyson is one of my heroes. He is the very essence of what it means to compete on the basis of innovation and design as opposed to price and spin.

With that out of the way let’s have cold hard look at Dyson versus Oreck. I wouldn’t normally just pick on a competitor for the sake of it but lately I have seen an increased number of Oreck ads and I also happened by a store of theirs in Manhattan over the weekend. They sell on history, price and “free steak knife” promotions. Let’s have a look at some pictures:

Oh my, notice anything? Don’t judge a book by its cover I hear you say. Well the fact is that Dyson changed the playing field when he removed bags from the vacuuming equation simply because they clog. Nothing else to it, they clog; sometimes rapidly, and therefore diminish your ability to clean your house effectively. Dyson went so much further than solving this problem. He also has a passion for design and how that intersects with the practicality of a vacuum cleaner – all those odds and ends to snap on and keep neat. The result is a stunning example of being so far ahead of your competition that they literally cannot touch you.

For a great Christmas present buy your favorite friend in small business “Against the Odds”. It’s a fantastic read and will get you deep inside Dyson’s mind. Happy cleaning.

Marketing Musing: Be Authentic

2007-11-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

In Week 15 I referenced Naomi Klein and her belief that marketing is not about spin; the heart of every good marketing campaign is a positive and valuable product or service. A new book called Authenticity really digs into this subject and is essential reading. Consumers are more informed that ever; don’t try to pull the wool over their eyes.

Take a brief look back at Week 12 where I talked about creating unexpected experiences in your business. Often times many of the little perceived extras you provide are considered part of the service – you need to look beyond these and wow your customers. Previously I would have said create “amazing experiences” for your customers. Really I should be saying create “authentic, amazing experiences”.

Many PR companies are great – they know a whole bunch of influential folks that you don’t, they know when and how best to reach them and that is hugely valuable in itself. However, never lose sight of your core business offering and that by focusing on making it great the PR will begin to take care of itself.

There is so much noise and clutter in today’s environment. We are told we have to “spin to be heard” which in fact might be true if your product sucks. The authors of Authenticity also wrote “The Experience Economy” in which they talk up the benefits of the service economy. Ironically it is the service economy itself that’s almost self devouring. Every day another “serviced based business” pops up to fight for recognition on behalf of their client’s product. The noise is more deafening than ever. Be authentic.

Random Quotes - Inaction Breeds Fear

2007-11-19T17:43:00.000-08:00

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

Dale Carnegie

Week 51 - Choices - What a Feeling!

2007-11-19T17:37:00.000-08:00

Above all, one time actions equal one time results. You MUST keep repeating the actions that we have highlighted over the past 12 months. Keep reading, keep networking, and keep learning about new industries and where yours is going. Stay positive and choose your friends on that basis. If necessary, make the decision to change businesses.

If you can stick to the plan, you will be faced with the most liberating of all words…. CHOICE. In this case, the choice to sell your business, to franchise your system or to simply work in your business less while it provides you with the income you need. There is no way we can put a timeline against this. Every business is different and whilst many are facing the same challenges, most are doing so from a different starting point. So don’t get discouraged if things don’t happen as quickly as you would like.

Try to enjoy the process - you will know you are on your way when your weekly sales start to increase, your bills get paid more quickly and you start to generate more and more referrals. Along the way you will have the choice between watching TV and reading a business magazine, or the choice between a game of golf or attending a tradeshow. Just remember the longer term effects these choices can have and the question “do you want to continue to exist, or do you want to do something really special with your business?”

As I have said repeatedly, we are all different and are running different types of businesses so no two situations are the same. Having said that, how you view your business, how you market your business and create new income streams and how you tie it all together with systems are factors that can lead to success in any business. Further you need to use all of the tools. Use some of the tools and you will only get mixed results. This is because all the systems tie together so tightly. You cannot do any consistent marketing without knowing exactly who you are and what you stand for. You can’t be consistent without knowing what systems deliver you the best results. You cannot ask people to make referrals unless your systems are delivering an awesome experience for your customers. The list goes on obviously. Use all of the tools in a systematic way and the world will open up for you

Occasionally some of the people you work and share life with hope to forestall change and hang on to the old system - even though it may be broken. Why do people behave this way? It could be because they fear they will not be able to “grow” into a new thing, create new skills that will be valued. Change makes people worry about being left behind. If you have not already read it, get a copy of Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. This will help you to understand feelings that surround change. You may also be able to recommend to those who just cannot let go of the past.

Random Quote: Choose Your Friends Carefully

2007-11-11T18:34:00.000-08:00

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe you too can become great.”

Mark Twain

Week 50 - Make Changes Stick

2007-11-11T18:31:00.000-08:00

Any change you make needs to be supported by a system to ensure actions continued to be carried out in the new way. By now you should be comfortable with systems, policies and procedures so this is the point where you must systematize the revisiting of the policy and procedure making process. That’s right, before you laugh, we do really need a system for updating your system!

Set aside one day each month to review your policies and procedures. During this day you should spend one hour on each different area of your business. Do this every month with unwavering commitment and your business will improve as never before. Can you honestly remember when you last took the time out in this way to make positive improvements?

Some things you can look at each month are:

What problems arose for us during the month and how can we modify our policies and procedures to avoid a repeat of these?
Did any of our policies and procedures cause trouble during the past month – how can we adjust them to avoid a repeat?
How do the employees feel about the policies and procedures? Which would they like to see modified and why?
Responsibilities – are all bases covered? Do we need to assign new responsibilities to employees to cover new areas of business?
Does anyone think we could make more money or make our jobs easier by changing the way we run things?

It is essential that you involve your key employees (perhaps all of them) in this workshop discussion. Through a combination of effective systems and development of new income streams, your business will be far less vulnerable to the ebb and flow that is business today. So what about you personally - can you handle the ebb and flow? You see the same principles apply to you as an individual. You need to prepare your mind, constantly feeding it with rich information and positive re-enforcement.

Marketing Musings: Scowls on Rodeo Drive

2007-11-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

This week The Wall St Journal ran a story about customer service on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. In Week 42 I wrote that you really must ensure that all aspects of your business are firing. It’s not enough to have a nice shop fitout, or helpful front desk staff. All areas of your business must be lifted to the same level. What’s interesting about the WSJ article is that despite the multi-million dollar shop fit outs, the global branding budgets and the huge expense of staff, you can still “Fall at the Last Hurdle”. Here is an excerpt:

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…I decided to gauge just how inviting Rodeo Drive's stores are with the help of Mr. Hill, who is president of Sensory Logic, a company based in Minneapolis that helps businesses from Target to Toyota connect emotionally with patrons. Mr. Hill employs "facial coding," a technique of reading and using facial expressions to elicit the most profitable emotional response in a customer. The premise is that feelings occur more quickly than thoughts and play a more effective role in purchasing decisions, so businesses need to appeal to our emotions. This is territory plumbed eons ago by Madison Avenue's ad men, but it's been harder to put into practice in many retail stores.

If it's the emotional rather than the rational part of our brains that makes many of our buying decisions, that's particularly true when it comes to luxury. (Certainly, it was my emotional brain that bought a St. John Knits suit recently, which my rational brain is now trying to justify.)

Yet just training sales clerks to say, "May I help you?" may not be terribly effective, given Mr. Hill's argument that only 7% of communication relies on verbal exchange. The rest is store décor, the facial expressions of sales associates, and things our eyes and ears pick up subliminally. Thus, on Rodeo Drive, Chicago's Michigan Avenue or London's Bond Street, one of the key factors deciding whether you walk out with a new Prada handbag may be the muscles at the corner of a sales clerk's mouth.

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It’s great stuff and worth while reviewing your business from the ground up.

Marketing Musings: Shape-Shifting via Facebook

2007-11-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

My usual stance on ANY advertising that does not result in a lead that has a chance to be converted into a sale is, don’t do it – especially if you are a small business with limited resources. In general this has resulted in me viewing “institutional advertising” or general branding messages (without a call to action) as simply a waste of money. This month in Fast Company magazine a new Facebook VP really got me thinking about whether or not this type of advertising is truly dead in the water.

Read the paragraphs below - it makes complete sense that there will always be a place for the emotional pull of a generic branding ad in forming opinions in the first place. Not all companies are lucky enough to benefit from extreme word of mouth marketing and for them, spending somewhere remains a necessity. I love the phrase "shape-shifting".

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...The primary accelerant is a Facebook feature called News Feed, which automatically shares information across friend networks and groups. As a result, "News Feed optimization," the art and science of writing a compelling News Feed announcement, has become an industry itself. "News Feed is as important to Facebook as AdWords or AdSense is to Google," says entrepreneur and blogger Dave McClure, who is teaching the Stanford course.

Harnessing the power of News Feed, the new apps, and the booming user base to make money for Facebook itself is the task of a new hire, VP of product marketing and operations Chamath Palihapitiya. Zuckerberg brought him aboard this summer to help figure out how to exploit what Facebookers call the "social graph"--those thousands of threads that make up users' connections to other people--and to create Facebook's coming targeted advertising program. Palihapitiya, 31, is tall and whippet thin, with elegant manners and a ready smile. A former electrical engineer, born in Sri Lanka and raised in Canada, he ran AOL's instant-message group, then jumped to the venture fund Mayfield. He is part Sand Hill Roadster and part freethinker; he appeared in an art film last winter making pointed comments about Silicon Valley's "old boy's club."

It is only day 67 for Palihapitiya at his new job when we sit down to talk, but he already sounds like a true believer. While cagey about details, he isn't shy about the potential he sees for targeted ads to fill Facebook's coffers. He madly sketches on a notepad, drawing a fine distinction between demand fulfillment (I want a cheap ticket to Hawaii. Now!), which the Internet has become quite good at, and demand generation, the shape-shifting set of marketing messages that conspire to get a consumer to want something. That, he says, is where he sees serious money on the table. "Facebook users are more engaged with each other," he says. "Aren't you more likely to be interested in what your friends are doing?" Google, which focuses by and large on demand fulfillment, is a $160 billion company. "For every dollar that goes into fulfillment, there are hundreds that are spent on generation," he says, particularly by the big brands. So what could Facebook be worth? Five times Google? Ten times? "Could be," he smiles.
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Week 49 – Learn to Accept Change, Even Enjoy It

2007-10-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

The most intriguing thing to me about a business owner who fails to gain control and grow is that often they have the tools and information available to them, they just do not put them to use! I think one of the main reasons people fail to act is the fear of change, or the fear of things just becoming different to what they are now. So things really suck right now, but if I try all of these crazy things life MIGHT get even worse. If you are to make progress, create new income streams, grow your business; some things just have to change. There is no way around this.

Everyday the world around us changes, life changes, and business changes. Change is caused by many things, sometimes it’s because people invent better ways to handle everyday problems. Other times it is inspired by a business that is striving to be more efficient. Your competitors may have found a way to remove some steps from a generations old process and if you supply product or services that those steps rely on, you may find your business disappears.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." -- Charles Darwin

As new competitors enter your market they can set new standards of service or cleanliness or value. You have to pay attention to what the public start to demand. This can be so gradual that you don’t even notice especially if you are tied up with trivial problems and employee issues. If you accept that things WILL change, no MIGHT change then you can schedule time each month to evaluate what the new standards in your line of business might be. It should be clear to you that there is nowhere to hide. Nothing is more certain than the world continuing to change. You need to adapt to this change, keep fresh and constantly review the results of your business and process innovations. Change with the times but more importantly, put in place systems to make the changes stick.

Let’s have one last look at how you are going to increase your business by 15% in multiple key areas:

Number of Leads – The number of phone calls or visits generated each year by your marketing. For a specific review, read Week 7.
Conversion Rate, Average Value of Sale and your Margins – the rate at which you convert prospects into actual customers as well as the average amount those customers spend with you each year. Margins are the gross profit you make on each sale. Once you have the leads, people who walk into or call your business are silently begging to be led. You need to take control and lead them to the best solution to their problem. Take risk out of these transactions and you will close far more sales. Finally, existing customers are your best source of business. You need to remain in contact and have them coming back to buy more often. For a specific review, read Week 23 and Week 25.
Number of Visits per Customer – the average number of times per year your customer purchases your product or service. You need to create new income streams to reduce the risk to your business. You need to set-up referral programs and ensure they are a lasting success. Finally you need to give your customers the tools to easily send you new business and never, ever give up when people say no! For a specific review, start reading at Week 27.

Week 48 - Revisiting Systems, Freeing Up Your Future

2007-10-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Week 48 serves as a reminder that “systems” implemented in your business have internal and external functions. I want you to look back over the previous ten weeks and really try to embrace systems. Systems are the key to success in any business so this is not just an area to tighten up, it is an area to evaluate and re-invent, on an on-going basis. Here are the key coaching tips to assist with your review:

INTERNAL

Start building your operations manual today. The quickest way to get going is to develop a checklist for each and every function in your business.
Through a friend see if you can make contact with someone who owns a franchise. Call them, explain that you are trying to improve your business by putting systems in place and could you come in and look over their Operations Manual.
Blame a system, not a person.
Buy and read Building the Happiness Centered Business by Dr Paddy Lund. Set about implementing The Courtesy System in your business.

EXTERNAL

Listen and then ACT. Listen to your customers; resolve to make contact with at least 10 per month. Ask probing questions about your service or product quality. Take action using the information you gather.
Following your customer audit, consider how the customer’s perception affects your ability to price at a premium.
Conduct “presearch” within your industry. You are searching for what your customers want or expect from a business such as yours in the future.
Employ a “secret shopper” if applicable. Otherwise work out another way to test your systems and employees on a regular basis. This could include friends calling in (phone, email or fax) or one of your colleagues actually ordering services from your business and giving you a report.

Perform a service audit of your business:

How do we treat our customers? Try to identify 10 areas which you can improve on and look out for “Not My Job” syndrome.
Do your employees have all the tools they need to do their work efficiently?
Read the books Fish and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

Marketing Musings: Maestro of DVD Distribution

2007-10-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

Although not that suitable for the smaller business, I do like Reed Hastings fresh (CEO of Netflix) approach to management.

PAY LAVISHLY Higher-than-average salaries—and tying bonuses and raises to the market, not a pool—can make stars less likely to bolt. Money is no object in hiring.

PROVIDE COMPENSATION CHOICE Employees are more likely to excel if they can pick how much of their compensation they get in stock rather than cash.

FOSTER TALENT HUNTERS Encouraging everyone to hire the three people they've loved working with most during their careers creates an intense, fun workplace.

LET THEM GO Don't give B performers a middling raise. Give them a decent chunk of cash and show them the door. And don’t surprise them. The laid-off leave with their dignity.

LIMIT RULES They reduce error. But they also stymie innovation. At Netflix, employees are responsible for their choices, even in how much vacation to take.

The full article is here at BusinessWeek.

Marketing Musings: Oh No, The Sandgate Hotel

2007-10-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

Gordon Ramsay is a master at picking apart hospitality establishments that have lost their way (or never had it!) What's incredible is how simple many of the mistakes appear but also how as an owner, you can be so oblivious to the solutions due to the pace and drama of the place. I highly recommend you seeking out the entire episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares: Sandgate Hotel. As a small business owner, it will probably be the most entertaining yet informative hour you have experienced.

Marketing Musings: Joie de Vivre Thrives

2007-10-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

In Week 43 I discussed employees. How the heck do you inspire and encourage them to treat the business as if it were their own? Inc. Magazine has a great interview this month with Chip Conley who owns a chain of boutique hotels in California. Chip talks about being inspired by the psychologist Abraham Maslow; you might have come across Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” before, you know, food and shelter at the bottom of the pyramid and so on?

What is impressive about Chip Conley is that he used the Hierarchy Pyramid as a guide for his own business and replaced the categories with the needs of an employee. And so it goes, the employee needs money (food and shelter) but as you work up the pyramid you get to things like recognition for a job well done and near the top, needs like meaning and creative expression.

There is no one silver bullet for ensuring every employee buys into your vision and treats your business as their own, but tools like this should be embraced to ensure you are doing all you can to make it a reality.

Week 47 - Systematizing the Marketing Function to Keep You Running at Peak Performance

2007-10-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

You know you need a system for greeting your clients and you also need one for capturing their details, but don’t forget that the most important systems of all are the ones related to your marketing. Why so? Because marketing activity is the primary source of new business leads. If you approach it haphazardly you will jeopardize all of your other efforts.

Imagine for a minute that you walk into a new job as a marketing manager and the boss hands you a folder titled “Our Marketing System”. Inside the folder you find an in-depth description of all the campaigns that have been run in the past and everything that is planned for the next six months. In addition to this, you find a summary of success and failures to date as well as a list of “ideas and marketing methods” still to be tested.

As a new employee you would feel empowered and very glad that you are not starting from the beginning. The owner of the business is even happier because there is a good chance you can simply pick up where the previous employee left off. Think of your marketing manual as an “operations manual” all of its own. You should be setting aside 1 hour per week to review the results of your test campaigns and feeding that data into decisions regarding your next move. You must commit this time to this exercise. Book 1 hour in your diary each week, for the next three months. You should get into the habit by then. If you don’t do this, your marketing will get stale, your testing and measurement will become non-existent. Basically you will be back to square one!

Frequently review the key marketing concepts:

Testing – what else can you test? Look for new ways to present your offer, new formats or new mediums. For example, try a print ad, then try it in color, then try it in a different magazine or web site. You are looking for the best return for your hard earned dollars.

Measurement – make sure you are measuring the right aspects of your campaigns and spending time thinking about what the data actually means. Feed the findings back into your next campaign and aim to increase your results.

USP – is this still appropriate for your business or have other ME TOO companies diluted the value of your proposition? Keep it fresh and relevant, it may never have to change, but be aware of what is going on around you.

Advertising – are you following the rules when it comes to writing your ads? Use the advertising checklist (Week 20) against EVERY advertisement that you run. Ignore the rules and you can expect your results to drop.

Innovation – it is hard to keep your marketing fresh if you do not have any new products or services to tell the world about. Use your time wisely and commit to a certain number of new products or services per quarter. This will feed straight into your marketing machine and create a snowball effect of new business.

Referrals and repeat purchase programs – never forget that if you rely on one or two income streams, your business is ALWAYS at serious risk. By being on the lookout for new distribution opportunities, you will create a valuable stream of pre-sold prospects that do not cost your business anywhere near as much as cold prospects in time or money.

Marketing Musings: Big Bucks Turnaround

2007-10-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

Would you do anything for a dollar? It seems that high flying auto executives just might. Just months after private equity interests purchased Chrysler the company has attracted some high flying execs from Toyota and the Lexus Division. Why would these folks leave their positions leading sales and marketing for the clear world leader? Ferrari I can see. A new breed of hybrid company, definitely. But Chrysler?

I am well aware that you have to start somewhere but this is no ordinary turnaround (as the headhunter has sold it). For me, it all starts with the product and as long as the products fail to meet the competitive standard (both design and quality wise) and the company is forced to cut costs and discount to move their product, the spiral will continue. It strikes me as a pretty daunting role. Not impossible, but there are there are 50 million other reasons why (at least reportedly in James Press’s case) the challenge was taken up and the private equity bet is that these people also believe they can do it!

Marketing Musings: Change Those Lightbulbs

2007-09-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

Last week (Week 46) I talked about attention to detail in your business and how that is perceived by your customers. I just stumbled upon this piece from Charles Dunstone who founded The Carphone Warehouse in Europe. Carphone Warehouse has over 1800 stores and Dunstone is worth over £800 million.

Mastery of that kind of detail is a gift. Dunstone, always likeable, belittles it. “Staff know I’m Mr Lightbulb,” he says. “The simplest way you can measure an organization is to walk in and see how many lightbulbs have not been replaced. Look at Heathrow — the greatest place in the world to spot non-working lightbulbs. All it says to me is, nobody cares.”

Charles Dunstone, The Sunday Times, April 16 2006.

Week 46 - Provide a Thrill Factor in a Welcoming Environment

2007-09-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Whatever you deliver, it has to be consistent. Once your systems are in place you will realize that it is not difficult to deliver a consistent service or product as these systems will support you every step of the way. Another way to climb out of the pile of competitors is to actually exceed their expectations. You see, most people expect decent service - that is, they expect you to go through the motions, supplying them, giving them their change and moving on. Not bad, not great, just good decent service.

Most customers will be shocked if you go out of your way to make the transaction a truly memorable event. This “thrill” factor is lacking in 99% of businesses today, which is great for you because it gives you the opportunity to differentiate yourself. Nearly every business success throughout the world counts “creating outstanding experiences” as the one of the keys to their success.

The flip side of this is bad experiences – have you ever called a business at 5:31pm and received a recorded message stating they are only available between 8:30 and 5:30pm? How does that make you feel? Even worse, what if you call back again in the morning at 9 a.m., and the message is still playing? Make sure you DON’T do this in your business. It shows that you don’t have a system and secondly that you don’t really respect the time of those that are trying to call. One thing I have not said until now is that EVERYTHING you do is marketing in some way so you must review your performance in these areas.

Sabotage doesn’t end with your phone system… The final touch to any systems based business is of course the impression you create when someone calls into your premises. Whether you are working from home, an office or even out of the back of a truck, you need to be projecting an image that is consistent with your traditional marketing and the reputation you seek.

What sort of coffee do you serve? Are your waiting room magazines 3 years old? Is your van filthy and disorganised? How does your business look? How does it smell, what is the decoration like – is it visually interesting – is it an inviting space?

There is a newsagent in Sydney who simply uses his business as a distribution point for papers and magazines – absolutely no effort has been made to make the shop inviting. There is mess everywhere, old posters – it always makes me think how little pride these people must have in their business. What about the hair salons that have the 10 year old, yellowing photos in the window? Not only do they look dated and worn – the hair styles have even gone out of fashion!

The usual excuse for this is that the owner simply does not have the money to update their premises. That may be the case, but this lack of funds is ultimately linked to all of the other issues we have discussed week to week. Once some progress has been made toward implementing systems, creating new income streams and running effective marketing campaigns, this situation will turn around and it is then that the premises must be dealt with. Nobody wants to eat in a dirty little diner anymore. Have you recently walked by a fast food shop which has not updated its interior in 10 years? These businesses have no real hope of survival unless they commit the dollars to renovation.

Just like meeting someone face to face, you only get one chance at that first impression. So a dirty restroom or broken piece of furniture may not seem like a priority to you today but think of the long term damage it can do, especially when you recall that each customer is worth a lot more than they actually spend on that day!

Week 45 - What Sort of Boss Are You? Unlock the Secret to Buy-In!

2007-09-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

Getting employees to “buy-in” to your vision can be much harder than it seems. What motivates you each and every day may mean nothing to your employees. Each employee must understand what you are trying to achieve and then encouraged to behave in a manner which helps you on your journey. To put it another way, they either work for you to earn money and couldn’t care less what happens to the business long term, or, they treat the business as if it were their own and constantly look at ways of improving the way things are done. The second version is obviously preferable!

Thriving on Chaos author Tom Peters is very blunt: “Every employee must buy in or else you are wasting your time.”

I recall owning a fast food restaurant and early one morning I discovered that the freezer motor had broken down. Pulling out the Yellow Pages I found a fridge mechanic and rushed to call them. After briefly describing the problem, the mechanic’s rough response was “…you know it is double time on Sunday don’t you?” There I was with at least $5000 worth of rapidly spoiling stock on hand and all this guy’s attitude said to me was basically “do you really need me to come out today?” When he did finally turn up, his demeanor was that of an angry bear. I wonder how his apprentice or other employees view his attitude and whether they even care about his business. He did not seem to. If he does not care about his business, how do you think he treats his employees? The guy just didn’t want to be there and of course was never heard from again, despite the fact that fridges broke down at least 3 more times in the months following. This could have been easy money for a friendly business owner with a few simple systems.

Virgin, a role model

One of the more striking international examples of “buy in” is the Virgin Group of companies. Sir Richard Branson has a presence and energy almost unique in the world and he manages to convey this through all of his companies. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about the airline or some project he has simply lent the Virgin name to, nearly all of the employees involved become starry eyed, in many cases accepting below market wages for the opportunity to serve him.

You should be able to come up with a combination of measures to kick start the buy in process in your business. Borrow the energy and fun created in the Virgin culture and mix it with Jack Stack’s methods of including employees at every level. Open up your business, spread the word regarding the figures, including profitability and marketing goals and above all, bear in mind that your attitude is contagious and is reflected in your employee’s behavior. Want others to be excited? You must BE and act excited yourself.

John McGrath is considered the most influential figure in the Australian property industry. He tells us “…a business will NEVER outpace its leader”.

Week 44 - How Kaizen Can Help Your Business Today

2007-08-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

It is very interesting how often business owners exclude their employees from critical conversations regarding the future of the company, or indeed the day to day operations. After all, it is the employees who do most of the work, who have most contact with customers and who have to work to the policies and procedures you have put into place. It makes sense therefore to involve employees in all of these discussions.

Morris Lasky, a US based 40 year veteran of the hospitality industry, has turned around more than a hundred organizations (hotels, stores, factories) in the last 20 years. He was quoted as saying "I'd say that 95 percent of a good bailout campaign comes from the comments of the people who are already there ... [who] know what the problems are, but have never been asked ...”

Japanese companies big and small already know this and it is part of the reason that they have been so successful over the past 30 years. The Japanese call it Kaizen, which is the word for improvement. This is not some hollow word on a mission statement hanging in the lobby of their buildings; this is a deeply ingrained culture of involving the entire group in innovation and striving for constant improvement. Granted to Japanese economy continues to see some very tough times but the quality of the products they produce certainly continue to change the world. What they do is “raise the bar” which thankfully for consumers means companies all around the world are forced to reconsider their quality standards as well as what could be considered as standard features.

The key aspect of Kaizen is that it is an on-going, never ending improvement process. The search for new methods and means of achieving a given result never ends and the focus is on small improvements, day after day, month after month.

The most interesting aspect of Kaizen is that it involves everyone in an organization. Employees at every level are actively encouraged to participate through continuous suggestion. These suggestions are reviewed by management and acted upon rapidly if it makes good business sense. For many Japanese companies, the search never ends. There is always something that could be made stronger, faster or more cheaply. There is an old saying: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” You can consider Kaizen to be the exact opposite of that statement.

You can borrow these techniques for use in your own business:

• Involve all employees in process improvement discussions
• Value each contribution
• Never accept that some new improvement cannot be found

Flying The Friendly Skies!

2007-08-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was on a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles this morning and a flight attendant handed me the pilot’s business card with a note on the back welcoming me (by name) to the “Friendly Skies”. Despite a long list of things still to fix at United (after a few years in bankruptcy) it is great to see a pilot leading the charge towards a turnaround. This completely random event (no one else seemed to get a card) is what keeps things interesting for customers; I mean when was the last time a pilot made contact with you? Keep it up United!

Marketing Musings: From Oil to Flowers, BP Shows How it is Done

2007-08-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

You have all probably all seen the increase in “eco-marketing” by the big oil companies. Chevron’s “Will you join us?” campaign is plastered in nearly as many places as Accenture’s overused images of Tiger Woods. But the Chevron campaign, whilst a great leap forward in positioning on this subject, usually left me feeling flat. Tips on being green and educating me on everything the company is doing doesn’t seem to resonate simply because I don’t get the feeling that anything on the street is actually changing. I always had a nagging feeling, “...step it up Chevron”. After all, they made $5.4B profit last quarter.

Yesterday I stopped at a new BP service station in Los Angeles and whilst I was mostly drawn in by the futuristic design, I could also see that they were trying to portray a new beginning in eco-responsibility. After I started filling the car, I emptied all of the garbage that had accumulated in my rental car; there were several recycling options for the various pieces of garbage, hardly a game changer but good to see. At that moment, a young man in a BP t-shirt approached me and started explaining the station from top to bottom.

After asking me if I was familiar with BP, he went on to explain how solar panels on the roof provided all of the electricity for the station, that the concrete driveway was made with recycled glass and other materials were sustainability obtained. He asked me a few questions to gauge my interest in the subject of being eco-friendly which I thought was engaging and interesting. He saved the coolest thing for last; he handed me a few eco “tip cards” which mention “driving aggressively causes increased fuel usage” and “turning lights off in a empty room helps us all”. I almost declined the cards until he told me that when I was finished with them I should soak them in water overnight and then plant them. Guess what, wildflowers will grow! How cool is that?

I left the station with a feeling that BP’s approach was far more than marketing spin. Not only was it wonderfully responsible, it was entertaining, original and the very definition of my mantra – SAY + LOOK + DO = REPUTATION.

Week 43 - Eliminating "Not My Job" Syndrome

2007-08-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

Most business owners want to get the best from their employees. Often they struggle in vain to influence the employee’s attitudes hoping that suddenly they will feel a new sense of responsibility. Bluntly, the first place to look for a solution is in the mirror. You have to be the embodiment of what you expect from your employees. Here again perceptions play a key role – how do your employees perceive your commitment to the business? Do they believe you want the best for the business and them, or do they think you only care about yourself?

Enough about you - what about the type of people you have hired? I once heard someone say “I always try to pick happy and bright people with common sense”. “The cash register”, the person stated, “is easy to teach. It is much harder to teach an unhappy person how to be happy!” I couldn’t agree more and obviously this will differ from industry to industry, but you should seriously consider adding it to your list of hiring criteria next time you have a vacancy. A major side benefit should again be increased sales. People buy from people they like! Sounds simple because it is, we buy from people we can relate to and feel comfortable with. If your employees are not happy and capable of building these relationships your sales are almost certainly suffering as a result.

When employees are made to feel valued through regular training and inclusion, and further, they are empowered so they can be made accountable, you should be 90% of the way to creating a environment for positive attitudes to flourish. The word individual means “having no like or equal” and this gives you a further hint about how you can get want you want from your employees. Yes every business has a purpose, but the employees are individuals, all are working there for different reasons. Try to tap into exactly what each individual is looking for. If you can help them to achieve their goals whilst getting what you want, it makes for an extremely positive environment.

In their book Fish, authors Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen point out that it does not matter what type of business you are in, enjoyment is a choice you and your employees have. Fish uses the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle USA as a metaphor. How can you get more uninviting than a cold, wet smelly fish market? The authors present the keys to the employees enjoying the environment and turning up to work each day:

Choose Your Attitude – Who do we want to be while we work? The choice of being unhappy or otherwise is yours to make each time you walk through the door.

Play – Have fun at work, fun creates energy.

Make Their Day – Involve your customers in your fun, go the extra mile, create an experience.

Be Present – For the benefit of both customers and co-workers.

Take time out and ask “how could this work for my business?”

Week 42 - Don't Fall at the Last Hurdle

2007-08-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Incorrect perceptions are one thing to deal with but it is far more difficult to recover when your staff have mistreated a customer or offered less than perfect service. Many large and successful companies today openly state that their employees are the number one priority, ahead of customers. This makes sense when you think about it. How can you treat your employees as a second or third priority and then expect them to offer the best possible service to your customers?

The old chestnut that the customer is always right is wrong. As a business owner, you can kick and scream and abuse your customers and put up offensive signs like “no refunds” or you can attack the problem another way. As I have already explained, consistency is a key element in your customer service plan so whether you are good or bad, at least be consistent. Consistent, systematic and friendly customer service can turn almost any business owner into a success yet so often we see business owners making an effort in only one or two of these areas. The real key (just like your approach to marketing) is to get four key areas right, no exceptions:

The outward facing policies in your business
The attitudes of your employees
The business systems that support your employees work
Gaining respect and understanding (your attitude as the owner)

Let’s look at the first area, your outward facing policies (our rules for engaging the customer) – the other three areas will be covered over the following weeks.

The customer service experience obviously begins when somebody walks into or calls your business. At this point there are already certain rules and regulations you have in place for dealing with the customers and these can be presented in a number of different ways. What you should be striving for in this area is making doing business with you easy, appealing and even fun! Doing the bare minimum is unlikely to thrill your customers. For example, when you go to the supermarket and the cashier asks “how are you?” Do you feel good about that? Not really, because you expect them to ask that, just as you expect them to be courteous and offer an efficient service.

Providing unexpected services is awesome customer service. Doing what every one else does is simply expected and therefore does not have any real impact on your customers.

Before you shoot down this suggestion by saying that extra services cost your business money – consider this; providing awesome customer service and maintaining the profitability of your business is a balancing act. However, when performed in conjunction with the other techniques I have described, you should be able to charge more for your product or service. Some department stores are famous for going the extra mile; often they are not obligated to refund your money, but many do. They realize that the time spent arguing damages the relationship with the customer so they simply move on!

Don’t put up offensive signs, don’t argue with customers about your obligations and make it easy for them to spend money – “No Credit Cards” is not what I would call an inviting sign for potential customers.

Remember, your outward facing policies will create perceptions about your business, sometimes without you even knowing. Make sure your policies are not turning off potential customers.

Marketing Musings: Find Out What the Market Wants Before You Deliver It

2007-07-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Sergio Zyman, was Chief Marketing Officer at Coca-Cola for 30 years and he tells us in his book “The End of Marketing As We Know It”:

“Every day the (political) candidate goes out on the stump, and the next morning the campaign manager gets up and says, how did we do yesterday? He or she collects the polling data to find out if the numbers came up, or down, and looks at voters surveys to find out why. Both of those are research. A good campaign manager goes a step further by doing “presearch”. In other words, he or she asks the voters: What if we told you this tomorrow? Would you vote for this candidate? And they keep asking until they find the positioning that is going to move votes.”

Can you take a lead and start doing presearch on your marketplace? I think this holds amazing possibilities for the average business. After all, we are always being asked “...how did we like the service?” but virtually never “...how would we react if in future we did things in this certain way?”.

Random Quote - Happiness

2007-07-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

I frequently cite C.C. Tung's mantra of “SAY + LOOK + DO = Reputation”. I think understanding and implementing this short saying is the best building block for any business looking to improve.

This morning I saw another quote not from a businessman, but one of the greatest influencers of the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi. This quote takes C.C. Tung's business focused statement and puts a personal spin on it:

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

Great stuff.

Week 41 - What Does the Marketplace Think of Your Business?

2007-07-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

What is perception and why is it important? Perception is defined in the Macquarie Dictionary as “…to gain knowledge through one of the senses…” In other words, perhaps our experience versus the facts. The famous marketing authors Al Ries and Jack Trout tell us in their book “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing”:

“…the three largest selling Japanese imported cars in America are Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Most marketing people think the battle between the three brands is based on quality, styling, horsepower and price. Not true. It’s what people think about a Honda, a Toyota or a Nissan that determines which brand will win.”

Can you relate to those statements? Do you just “know” that your coffee is the best in the district or that your photography is better than anyone else’s, or that your hotel is always cleaner and more comfortable? If you are not seeing the results you would like, you could be right about your product or service, but the community may believe otherwise. Ries and Trout continue:

“What makes the battle even more difficult is that customers frequently make buying decisions based on second-hand perceptions. Instead of using their own perceptions, they base their buying decisions on someone else’s perception of reality. This is the “everybody knows” principle.”

This introduces a dangerous concept; bad word of mouth advertising. As you all know, this can literally ruin a business. “Everybody knows” can spread through a community or entire town very quickly. Think about it. When you are talking about products and services amongst friends, perceptions often rear their heads. “…they are expensive…”, “…it’s too cold on their balcony…”, “…they always turn up late…”, “…we waited an hour for a table and the staff were rude…”

On and on it goes, and you make decisions based on these second hand perceptions. The only way to proactively ensure that your business does not suffer is to keep on soliciting feedback from your customers. As I have said, just ask, and keep on asking. You will pick up perceptions good and bad every day. You are then in a position to change these perceptions by making good an error or calling the affected customer to explain exactly what happened and why it won’t happen again.

STOP PRESS: There is far more to perception than just making sure there is not negativity surrounding your product or service. Do you pay more for dinner at an exclusive restaurant? Do you pay more for Nike shoes than for a store brand? Would you pay more for a Mercedes Benz over a Lexus? The questions are of course rhetorical as people do this all the time. What this means for your business is simple: if the market doesn’t believe it, you cannot price at a premium! Put another way, perceptions will always be directly linked to your ability to charge more for your product.

Marketing Musings: What is Service in Your Corner of the Globe?

2007-07-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

It’s funny, I am never one to shy away from complaining about “over the top” service in America. The “…are we doin’ OK here?” and “…how’s everything?” and “can I get you anything else’s?” always seem to come at the key moment for your romantic dinner or business meeting. Why, I ask myself, do they go through this meaningless routine? We have to tip anyway, please just wait on us professionally and use some judgment before barging in on our conversation.

Last week I had a brief trip to Prague and my mind was opened regarding the things I complain about in America. Whilst the city was magnificent and the people friendly, wait staff were just appalling. They really could care less whether you waited 5 minutes or 5 hours to get your dinner. It was almost as if they resented you being present, possibly a cultural hangover from the almost forgotten socialist era. Ironically, I was praying for a “…are we doin’ OK here?”

But all was not lost – on the way home I spent a few days in Norfolk on the English seaside. Here pubs have been converted into beautiful restaurants and classy bars. One particular place inspired this post as although we had a fantastic meal and experience. I don’t remember the wait staff at all. At the end of the meal they even removed our plates without me noticing! Now that is service; a great meal and experience (we had everything we needed) and a professional staff that was sensitive to our communication and personal space. England wins this round :-) and do stop in at The Hoste Arms if you get a chance.

Week 40 - What is the Market Perception of Your Business?

2007-07-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

External performance is critical as ultimately it dictates how you are perceived by your customers and the general public. Get it wrong and the best internal systems and marketing won’t help you! Working out what people in your community think of your business is quite easy - ask. You need to find out how they rate your product, your service, your opening hours, your range, your employees, your location and anything other factor of your business that you believe is important.

There are two great questions you can ask your customers:

What was pleasing or distinctive about the service you received?
What, if anything do you believe we should change to improve our service?

There is no point asking a watered down version of these questions such as “…everything alright?” These days everyone is busy so they respond “yes fine” and walk out regardless of how they actually felt. Dig deeper, it will be worth it in the long run.

You will know from your own experiences that when a business annoys you, or lets you down, you certainly tell your family and friends but rarely do you give that feedback to the business owner. Some people will be like that no matter what you ask them - you will never get their feedback. But if you begin asking the questions, you will get a whole lot more feedback than you ever thought possible.

Good or bad this information is priceless but it must be collected systematically. Many business owners go on a feedback “binge” for 1 or 2 weeks, resolve to fix everything and then never mention it again. As with everything in life things change, so you need to have a system in place which reminds you to gather this information as often as appropriate.

One further point: if you are going to make promises to your clients, do what you say you will do! If the feedback card says it goes straight to the Managing Director’s desk for action and a response, then make sure the Managing Director responds! Failing to do so will leave your business with very little credibility.

Random Quote - The Power of Commitment

2007-06-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Until one is committed there is hestiancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid dreams: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that otherwise would never have occurred. A whole stream of events issue forth from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and mutual assistance, which no one could have dreamt would have come his way. 'What ever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

W. H. Murray.

Week 39 - Can Behavior Be Systematized

2007-06-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

Previously I have mentioned systems and employees but really only focused on the policies and procedures that employees are expected to adhere to. What about how employees treat each other or how they interact with the owner of the business - is it possible to systematize that type of behavior so that there are fewer disagreements within your business? The process begins long before these people are your employees.

It is not easy to change the personality of an unfriendly and unmotivated person. Seek out those people who are outgoing and seem willing to learn and ask for examples of how they have used common sense to achieve goals in previous workplaces. The technical aspect of your work may be quite easy to teach so you should focus on hiring people you believe will bring passion to your business.

To some it might sound far fetched, but one such business that has achieved “happiness” is Paddy Lund Dentistry, owned by Brisbane, Australia based dentist Paddy Lund. You see Paddy Lund’s dentistry practice operates under the “The Courtesy System”. Implementing The Courtesy System in your business could mean an end to disagreements and eventually to a much stronger feeling of collective worth.

Paddy Lund’s firm belief is that you spend so much of your time at work you should make an effort to enjoy that time. The time you spend at work is simply living your life. Paddy gave up trying to buy happiness through acquiring cars and property outside of work hours and rather realized that if he was ever to truly be happy, he had to make changes in his workplace.

Paddy begun this transformation by insisting that all staff use “please” and “thank you” every time they interacted. On top of that he demanded an end to office gossip. Initially as you might expect, the employees and Paddy himself felt that the words sounded “put on”. Interestingly the clients did not, they were often commenting how refreshing it was that employees were treating each other with such respect.

On top of employees being courteous to each other Paddy put in place daily meetings to tackle sources of unhappiness. By getting employees to speak candidly if things had upset them, Paddy could identify causes and put in place new rules to ensure the offending behavior was not repeated. What Paddy has learned is that he is able to work up to 50% less, his staff are happy all of the time and the people attracted to the practice (by referral only!) also possess positive attitudes. In addition, Paddy’s employees are with him for the long haul and on top of all of this, he makes more money than he ever did when he was unhappy! The reduced workload and extra money can be attributed to the implementation of systems (for both the business and how staff interact) which has lead to more profitable and happy customers. One example is that appointment cancellations plummeted leading to less scheduling problems (revenue) and a more organized environment (calm, happy employees).

Think about your workplace for a moment. Perhaps there tensions in the air between staff that can affect the way your customers perceive your business. Would you like to serve only your ideal customers and look forward to going to work each and every day?

What can your business learn from Paddy Lund Dentistry?

Embark on a fact finding mission to establish the “happiness issues” in your business – start with an employee survey or group discussion
Put systems in place initially to force greater co-operation and sensitivity
Identify roadblocks to your continued success by involving all employees in open discussion
Adjust the systems as required to maintain your positive momentum
Never stop looking for improvements all the while ensuring you are treating your fellow employees with dignity and respect. Again this might sound like hard work and yes it will take time, but the effort required will taper off.

The rest you can learn from Paddy himself; buy his book here.

Week 38 - Never Stop Looking for Improvements

2007-06-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

Someone once said that a journey of a thousand miles beings with one small step. So it is with your policies and procedures that make up your business system. Start today, constantly refine the system when a problem occurs. You just need to ask yourself what other steps could be implemented to avoid the error in the future. These small incremental improvements will add up and one day you will realize that your business now runs without any yelling and screaming and that you do not actually have to be there! You simply must be committed to improving your processes incrementally, all of the time.

The word “system” might sound a little “constraining” to some of the more creative businesses out there. “Our people are individuals, we want their spirit and personality to shine through and thrill the customer with outstanding service”. No problem. Systems are not about leveling out each employee’s personality or creating an army of programmed robots. They are simply about producing a consistent result time after time. Your employee’s personalities can sit on top of the policies and procedures as a “presentation” layer. You can see this in action in well run businesses - some employees are friendlier than others, some might get into a conversation with you regarding the weather or the house you are painting BUT they all follow the same procedure of greeting you with certain words and up selling you.

In fact, effective systems backed up by the tools to get the job done actually free up your employees to spend time on the solution for the customer. In other words, get the hurdles out of the way, streamline your system and make it easier every day to process a customer transaction. That way you will find not only is your business running smoothly but your employees are happier and the customers are being treated consistently and with enthusiasm and genuine interest. Mike Basch, a founder of the global delivery and logistics company FedEx once said:

“Systematize the routine, humanize the exception."

Next week, can behavior be systematized? Paddy Lund Dentistry holds the answer!

Week 37 – Want to Take Your Hands Off the Steering Wheel?

2007-06-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Walk into any franchised business and take a look around, I guarantee you will see the one thing that makes that business run like clockwork, the Operations Manual. The Operations Manual is the bible of running a tax planning or cheesecake making or hamburger grilling or any other type of franchised business. In contrast, how many non-franchised businesses have an Operations Manual on hand to solve the day to day challenges that every business faces?

Franchisors give their franchisees this manual so they can follow the processes and systems that led to the original success of the business. They often describe every function of the business, in absolute detail, right down to the procedure for cleaning a sink or answering a telephone. Franchisors do this because they know if left to their own devices, the business owner (or their staff) will perform inconsistently and deliver the products or services as they see fit.

Much research has been conducted on the success of the franchise system and the most important element attributed to those that are successful is the method of doing business. In most cases, the usual business rules still apply. You might need a great location, a unique product with mass appeal but ultimately it is the profitable delivery of the products or services that is the key to long term success.

Building policies and procedures for every aspect of your business is initially going to be time consuming. But look at it this way, until and unless you commit to putting what you expect in writing, you will never be able to leave your business. Leaving would be like taking your hands off the steering wheel when driving your car. So put in the work, commit to documenting one aspect of your business per week over the next three months. Eventually you will find yourself with a healthy sized overview of how to run your business the way that you want it run.

The bottom line: we are building an expert system rather than a business that needs EXPERTS to run it!

Perhaps one of the world’s best known pizza franchises is Dominos. Dominos is famous in business circles for the strict system that just about guarantees they can get that pizza to you in 30 minutes (this guarantee has recently been replaced by “Made Fresh, Arrives Fresh”). More importantly it will still be hot! How do they do this? You can’t rely on a fast delivery driver, or your best ever hire that is currently making the pizzas; you have to give all of the employees a tight system they can follow, no matter what their skill level.

Dominos do this by showing employees exactly how much time they have to complete each step of the pizza production and delivery process. They call this “Heightened Time Awareness”:

• 2 minutes “into the oven”
• 10 minutes “out of the oven”
• 12 minutes “out of the store”
• 22 minutes “to the door”

You can see how this framework allows a manager to pinpoint problem areas and make adjustments to create a consistent result. Pizza didn’t get to the door in less than half an hour? What happened? What point in the process took longer than it should have and what actual event caused this?

Within your business you may have made excuses in the past when the going got tough. In an independent pizza business the comments like “we are just busy tonight” or “we ran out of tomato sauce” might fly around when the going got tough. Well I will say it again. If systems have taken care of these trivial problems the pizza delivery system has every chance of getting the product out on time.

IKEA has similar systems for dealing with your order. Yes they are huge but remember they started as one small furniture store. Even the tickets on the counter at your local delicatessen are a system. How many shops have you been into which are equally as busy but have no system for dealing with the crowd? How annoying is that? Can you imagine if there were no guide ropes in an airline check-in area? Why then do so many businesses operate in this manner?

Week 36 - Getting Coffee The Way You Like It

2007-05-31T15:04:00.000-07:00

There is no big secret to fixing a consistency problem in your business - you need a system. A business without a documented system is like an airline pilot trying to get from Los Angeles to London without a flight plan or instruments. It’s that simple, the pilot might make it based on skill alone (after all, the pilot is good at flying a plane), but the odds are against long term success. Everyday we see examples of this in the business world. People sell products or services but they do it reactively, never bothering to stop and document the steps required to achieve a consistent result time after time. How does this show up in the community around you?

Have you ever been served a coffee that was perfect, only to return again and have your mouth scolded by milk about 30 degrees hotter than it should be?
Have you ever experienced outstanding customer service at a restaurant and then on another visit, had the opposite experience?
Has a friend ever received a discount or offer at a store and when you tried to take advantage of the same, the staff were confused or would not acknowledge the offer?
Have you ever been asked “...whose next?” or “...you right?” rather then “Welcome, how may I help you?”
Have you ever visited a hotel or resort and been totally satisfied only to find that on a return trip the hotel was dirty and not as you had remembered?

You probably get the point. How does it make you feel when you are treated in this inconsistent manner? How does your brain react next time you want to buy a coffee or take a holiday? Nothing is more certain than your brain telling you:

“DANGER : not sure what experience I will receive this time, try somewhere new!”

Systems serve two main functions:

INTERNAL PERFORMANCE - To ensure that internally, all critical functions of delivering your product or service are carried out in the same manner and consistently revised to improve their performance.
EXTERNAL PERFORMANCE - To ensure that all of your customers are treated properly, but more importantly, are always treated consistently.

Over the coming weeks we will look at these two areas in depth and create an operations manual that will let you set your business on “cruise control”.

Random Quote - The Ultimate Equation

2007-05-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

"The business equation is simple: Profit equals revenues minus cost. Or maybe it is slightly more complicated: Long term profit equals revenue from continuously happy customer relationships minus cost."

Tom Peters, Thriving On Chaos

Week 35 - How To Get Your Business Running Without You

2007-05-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Over the next twelve weeks we will look at perhaps the single most important area for all small business owners – the systems that support what they provide each day. Here is what I will cover:

Why implementing systems will improve your business dramatically.

How to develop your Operations Manual and why it is critical to your success.

The difference between internal and external performance.

How to ensure your product or service is consistent and tap into what the marketplace thinks of your business.

Some simple techniques to get employees to really understand your business and act accordingly.

Why training is critical to your short and longer term success.

How to improve your marketing and advertising, week in, week out.

How to ensure that your referral programs are an on-going success.

How to create an experience for your customers that will keep them coming back time after time.

Systems are absolutely critical to your business success. Without them you can almost certainly not franchise your business and will find it much more difficult to sell, or indeed put in fewer hours. Systems are developed by paying attention to what goes on in your business at the lowest level. Systems are about treating the root cause of the things that happen day to day. We are all familiar with putting out fires but how many of us make an effort to ensure that a specific problem does not reoccur? The business owners who do this spend far less time answering the same questions or dealing with the same problems; they have freed themselves.

If you ever said “…I cannot take a holiday, this place would collapse if I didn’t show up every day…?” you will get a lot of value from the next 12 weeks. Many business owners feel exactly the same way; that is, “…none of my employees can do things the way I would do them so how can I leave them to run the business?”

If this sounds familiar I don’t need to know anything about your business to guess that you do not have policies and procedures for each aspect of it. The reason is that when left to their own devices, even the most dedicated and intelligent staff will fail to be consistent. What choice do they have? They do each job as they see fit and according to their mood in that moment. Let's get to work on fixing this.

We Reserve the Right to Love Our Customers

2007-05-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

I met a colleague in Santa Monica the other day and we decided on a new tea house that neither of us had visited before. Whilst the owners had the “just opened” spring in their step and were very hospitable, there was a hugely prominent sign (front and centre of the customer experience) that read:

“WE ABSOLUTELY RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE”.

What is wrong with this picture??? SAY + LOOK + DO = REPUTATION. You cannot choose one or two of these items - you need to excel in all three! If you must have a sign like this, why not make it tiny sign on the counter in 5 point Helvetica font? The current position of the sign indicates they expect to refuse service to a good proportion of people whereas in reality, it will only ever be the tiniest percentage. Get rid of it.

Contrast this experience with another little café I visited today. They have sign on the register that mentions a $10 minimum charge for credit card purchases. The big difference is the way they word their sign:

We appreciate a $10 minimum charge on credit card purchases.

Thank you! A business that understands their customers are their livelihood and future. LOVE your customers or head back to the section in Week 1 about figuring out what you really want from your business.

Week 34 - No Sale Yet? Never Give Up!

2007-05-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks I have focused mainly on actively working with your existing customers to create more sales. Question: what if the prospect never becomes your customer? What if you were to travel to their house, provide a quote and then miss out on the work? Well, if most businesses dump paying customers after the first transaction, what do you think they do with prospects who don’t even buy? Yep, they don’t get a second thought. Perhaps they even receive a special outburst about the “big mistake” they have made!

Dormant and cold prospects can still be of value to your business so first and foremost, you should stay in contact. There are a hundred reasons why people don’t move forward with quotes – they might have found a cheaper price or a better referral but they also may have deferred their decision due to lack of money or an overseas trip. The point is it could be any reason, so stay in touch and re-read “Week 25” which talks about “follow-up”.

As with everything I write about, for follow-up to be effective, you have to do it systematically. An easy way to do this is simply call all of your non-buyers once every couple of months. Ask how things are going, “…is there any other information I can provide to help you make a decision?” Email is also an easy way to drop these prospects a standard note asking for an update on their situation. It has probably cost you money to attract these potential buyers in the first place, so don’t discard them. Try to extract some value over the following weeks or months.

To round out, here is a powerful question when faced with a “…no thanks…” from a prospect:

“Thank you for your time, do you know anyone who you believe WOULD benefit from our product or service?”

If it is appropriate, start asking that in your business today. Recruitment agencies do it all the time and over time build huge contact lists. Remember that word leverage. You have the customer on the telephone, on email (or on their porch) and you can decide to walk away, or ask the simple question and generate more income and profit for your business.

I will now move on to building your business systems. Once your business is operating like a well oiled machine (with or without you) you will finally get the time to start making choices for your business rather than them being made for you by the marketplace.

Don't Try To Please Everyone

2007-04-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

In week 30 I talked about the fact that not all customers are created equal; in fact, there are many types of customers you probably don't want! I saw a great quote today which captures this much better than I did.

"I cannot give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody."

--Herbert B. Swope, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

Be Anything You Want, Except Fake

2007-04-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Back in Week 15 I posted this great quote from Naomi Klein of No Logo and Fences and Windows fame:

In her book, Fences and Windows, Naomi Klein discusses those big multi-national companies who, with the help of a PR agency, decide that they “want to be your friend”. She describes those businesses which spend so much time and money trying to convince consumers that they really care about them while at the same time, behaving in a manner anything but! To use Klein’s words, do you have a “communications problem” or a “reality problem?”
Innovation, service and marketing are not about spin, they are about a genuine commitment to turning your business into a productive part of society.

This month Fast Company magazine has a great article on “authenticity” which really hammers home the point above - to resonate with your customers don’t spend energy on spin; rather spend it on creating genuine solutions to your customer’s problems. Or as they put it in the article “...the story a brand tells through its actions...”. Love it.

What's This All About?

2007-04-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

If you are reading my blog for the first time Week 33 is probably not the best place to start. As a quick refresher, let me summarize how we got this far, giving you the context that will help you change you business.

Change Your Business, Change Your Life is a collection of ideas, techniques and advice with a single goal; get your business from wherever it is today, to a place where it is delivering the life that you seek. Many business owners end up being defined and controlled by the businesses they create – which is just fine for some folks. For others however, spare time with the family, travel and philanthropy (as just a few examples) become more important but because of the business, are often neglected.

Changing your business begins with you – what do you want? Once you have this figured out, it really comes down to two things, effective marketing and systems. Sprinkle in some advice on actually being nice to your customers and making it easy for them to keep buying and you get a blueprint or at least an interactive map for starting your journey. The graphic above captures this best and I suggest you start with Week 1 back in August of 2006 to ensure you get all you can from this process.

PS - in the graphic are the words SAY + LOOK + DO = REPUTATION. This is not original, it is from CC Tung, CEO of OOCL, one of the least known (but my most admired) companies - until you realize that you see their shipping container logo nearly every day!

Week 33 – Licensing; Getting All You Can

2007-04-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

I like to think of licensing as squeezing every last bit of juice from an orange. Earlier we learnt that getting the most leverage from your advertising can give you much greater results for the same cost. Licensing your method of doing business is the same thing. You will get maximum leverage of your efforts, meaning minimal effort to multiply your income.

Licensing is a key method for geographically constrained businesses to increase their turnover and spread their tentacles. For example, if you are a supplier of steel products, it is unlikely you can be competitive with another steel supplier 1500 miles away. The freight costs would eat any margin and ensure that the local supplier was always able to beat you on price. But what if you could license your method of doing business or method of steel production to all the competitors outside your competitive area?

For a real world example, look at world famous Rockpool Restaurant. The team runs two restaurants, a cooking consultancy business for the airline Qantas, two television programmes which the company co-produces, as well as a product line for the supermarket chain Woolworths. Now that is a great example of leverage through licensing. It all started with the restaurant. Running a top class restaurant is obviously tough but the recipes and concepts and flair can be leveraged through the other initiatives and product lines, without the founders having to work 2 or 3 or 4 times harder.

You have to think outside of your industry. At first glance a restaurant and TV show might not seem like a logical mix, but think how amazing it is that they now get paid to be filmed doing what they would have been doing anyway. You can see the leverage concept in action all around you, Starbucks leverage their core coffee product, super models leverage their beauty and professional sporting teams leverage their players.

Justin Herald, founder of the clothing brand Attitude® operates in this way but he warns that it was not as easy as it sounds. “People come up with concepts all the time, but you can’t just expect someone to offer you money for your unproven concept. You have to get out there, build your brand and sales before you can expect any level of interest in this sort of arrangement.”

How do you get started?

Perform an intellectual property audit on your business. Write down all that is unique about your business. This could be your production methods or customer service technique or the selling system that works better than any competitors.
How could you offer others training on your method of achieving a result? The point is that if your business is successful, it is because you have devised a system which is working, week in, week out. Parts of, or the entire system can be licensed, after all who wouldn’t want your success? You have to have your methods documented. Follow the guidelines we will discuss over the coming weeks.
What other products or services can you offer? Could you add other company’s products and services to your offering but under your own name? Spend an entire day with your team brainstorming new product or service ideas that could grow out of your core offering. Put everything on the board - what looks silly now might seem like a good idea 5 hours later.

Week 32 - In It For the Long Term

2007-04-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

Try signing your customers to a longer term agreement, for exampl, rather than a dozen bottles of wine once off, the program becomes a dozen bottles every six months. This becomes a recurring agreement until the customer cancels. Terms work very well for people in a seasonal business (pool cleaners, gardeners) who instead of servicing a customer once and walking away, signs them to a 6 month service program. You may give a discount for this commitment but the main benefit to you is the introduction of stability to your cash flow and therefore ability to forward plan.

Could you ask your customers for a longer term agreement? If you are a tax accountant you could sell your customers a 12 month package of financial checkups, tax planning and ultimately the tax return. What about a window cleaner or personal fitness trainer? Of course, these businesses naturally lend themselves to this type of program. Even a bookstore can offer to send the book of the month to their customers, or what about a dentist that sells an annual package of check-ups, 2 cleaning sessions and a tooth whitening program?

Stop now and write down all the ways you could get your customers to purchase in volume or sign them to a longer term agreement. Don’t get stuck focusing on what your industry is currently doing - look outside and borrow ideas from other industries. For example, I don’t think I have seen a dry cleaner offering a frequent cleaner discount card just as the coffee houses do. Nor have I ever received a call from a dry cleaner asking if I was satisfied, as car servicing businesses do.

Implement a reminder system

Because you now know that you must have your customers’ names and contact details, you will be in a position to implement a reminder system. Dentist and doctors do this very well but what about toner cartridge suppliers, clothing stores or fine restaurants for example? Some products such as a lawn mower are bought only once or twice in a lifetime, but in general most businesses can find a way to remind their customer base that it could be time for another visit. Spend some time thinking about how you could condition your clients to receiving your regular updates including how and why they should come back to see you.

Actively work your customer list, but remember the golden rules:

Communicate with genuine interest in your customer’s well being.
Offer real value in every communication, rather than just asking for more business (for example, a shoe store might include the latest European fashion in a small booklet, a car servicing business might send a city map, or a free test drive offer. At that point, you can ask for their repeat business, but not beforehand.)
Keep your customer database “clean”. In other words, don’t send your clients the same offer three times and don’t continue mailing people who have passed away or moved from the city.

Most of the methods I have described over the past few weeks give you the tools to generate far more leads in a more efficient manner. Let’s review;

By making contact with people who have purchased a complementary product or service before or after yours, you can pinpoint those most disposed to your offering.
Using your systematic referral program you will be training your own indirect sales force to spread a consistent message.
Finally, actively ensure you sell to each customer as frequently as possible.

Combination of effort in these three areas virtually guarantees you an increase in profits.

Week 31 - Fears are BAD, Repeat Offers are Good

2007-04-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

There are certain types of businesses or organizations out there that can refer the perfect customer to you. The type of business will be different depending on your industry, but your goal is to establish the criteria around the perfect customer referral. Take some time to decide just what type of customer you want and then list all of the businesses that have these people as customers. Remember that even though a business may appear to have your ideal customers this does not automatically mean they will be a good source of referrals. Once you have your “ideal” list, eliminate all those you feel would not be in a position to influence the customer, then call on the businesses that remain.

There is a golden rule to making these relationships work: address fears up front.

Sit down with the business owner, explain how your product or service could benefit the customers they already have. Once you have covered their initial questions, ask them what their remaining fears may be! You might not want to be that direct, but the point is everyone has fears, fears you might give their clients bad advice, fears you make lure away their client and many more. Get them out on the table and be sure you are in a position to allay the fears. If you do not ask this crucial question your referral program will more than likely fail.

You can get really creative with referral programs. McGrath Real Estate is one of the most successful real estate brokers in Australia; they were constantly sending new leads to a well established and trusted furniture removals company. Instead of getting nothing in return or even a small payment (which wouldn’t have felt right in this instance) the removals company dedicated the sides of their removal trucks to advertising the McGrath business. Given the amount of time these trucks spend out on the road this truly is a deal that works for all parties.

How repeat offers can ignite your bottom line

Earlier I highlighted that your employees need to see your customers for their lifetime value rather than their single transaction value. The best way to ensure that the average customer does actually spend what you expect over their lifetime is to offer them an on-going “no-brainer” method to buy your product or service. Magazine and newspaper publishers already do this instinctively via subscriptions, but how many other industries can apply this method?

You may already be signed up to these services yourself. You know, the ones where your credit card is charged until you decide to cancel? Getting your customers onto such a program will dramatically increase your revenue. Inertia is a powerful thing – what I mean by that is than once your customers have subscribed to your product or service, they are likely to take a lot longer to actually make the call and cancel if they decide they no longer have a use for you (we will save this for another week, but do you have a program for those customers that do try and cancel the services you provide? You need to hold onto them so line up an impressive list of offers to turn around the conversation).

Week 30 - Not All Customers are Created Equal

2007-03-25T17:12:00.000-07:00

Your existing happy customers should be your number one source of high quality referrals. They should be sending new customers to you on a consistent basis but not only that, the right type of customer. You might already have a referral plan in place but let’s have a look at some rules for attracting the best prospects consistently:

Rule 1 – Know exactly which type of customer you would like to serve and therefore attract.
Rule 2 – Be crystal clear about the experience that you provide. Create awesome experiences every time a valued customer deals with your business.
Rule 3 – Always follow up making sure to thank the referrer for their gesture.

Asking for a referral is a bit like asking someone out on a date. Many people find it uncomfortable so the question becomes, “how can you make it a pleasurable experience?” Let’s take the date analogy one step further and assume the person you want to ask out is a friend of a friend. Now just asking is one thing, you certainly won’t get anywhere without that – but what about the role that your immediate friend plays? Their perception of you and your suitability for the person you want to ask out will probably end up being the determining factor about whether the date happens or not. The same goes for referrals in business. If you have a strong relationship with your customer and provide them with awesome experiences every time they walk through your door would they really see the request for referrals as rude or unwarranted? No.

Now let’s get back to the rules. First of all, what will happen if you tell your friends you just want to date anyone? That’s right; they will send you everyone and anyone. What if you said you were looking for a well educated, funny person with blonde hair? You can see that knowing who you are trying to reach is very important – otherwise your referral system will end up driving you mad because the people calling will not be the “customers” that you seek!

Second rule: Generally speaking your friend has to know you or what “experience” you will likely provide – otherwise why would they give you their friend’s contact details? When I say “experience” I am using the business analogy. What I mean is they know you and your personality and they probably know the impact you would have upon meeting the other person. Have you ever asked someone you knew only slightly to list five of their best friends with phone numbers so you can ask them out? I don’t think so! But every day businesses try this cold approach. Tell us who your friends are and we will bug them for you – we will even tell them it was you who gave us their number! Dumb.

Final rule: Let’s assume the date was a screaming success. Would you normally call your friend and thank them for the introduction? Again in business we tend to take this area for granted – we are happy to hear that our new customer came from the same place (again), but often doing little or nothing for that person. Now recognition is a powerful thing. You don’t have to pay the referrers. Unlike business to business referrals, personal customer referrals should be based purely on your customer being so thrilled with your service they are desperate to let others know. Your challenge using the rules above is to guide them so you get the best referrals for your business and then nurture, thank and recognize. Then the cycle begins again.

Week 29 - One Person Could Help Grow Your Business Overnight

2007-03-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

There is amazing power in having your product or service endorsed by someone who already has your prospect’s trust. Put simply, there are many people in your life today that you would trust if they recommended something to you. It might be your local priest, your golf coach, a teacher or your next door neighbor. If you can find one of these “trusted” people that is respected by a large enough group of your potential prospects, then you have identified a very good center of influence.

Most business owners spend all of their marketing dollars trying to reach “cold prospects” that have not been previously conditioned to accept your company. Educating prospects through a trusted third party prior to your arrival will improve your conversion rate rapidly.

A centre of influence is far different to say, a mailing list that you can buy or rent. These lists of names have been compiled from various sources - some trusted, some not, some not even knowing how they ended up on the list! So you will not get the same effect from this method of contact.

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Stop now and make a list of all Centers of Influence you can think of? You are looking for a central source that has the trust of a group of people.

Example:

Your family doctor could write to you endorsing the services of a local personal trainer.
A local community leader could write to households with children notifying them of a new child care centre that is built to new standards of excellence and run by trusted professionals.
A swimming club president could arrange a letter to all swimming clubs in the district on behalf of a trusted swimwear manufacturer, urging all clubs to purchase through them.
An accountant could write to their entire client base introducing an investment product provided by a trusted company.

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Make sure you offer real value, not "ME TOO".

Centers of influence need to be used in conjunction with other marketing and advertising initiatives and should not be relied upon as your sole source of prospects. Every time we get onto a plane the airline endorses a rental car company, but because all of the airlines are doing the same thing and there are so many other ways to get a good deal, the program really lacks punch. Plus, in most cases, the relationship with the airline is not an intimate one.

Systematic Referral Programs

Many business owners say that their biggest source of sales or work is referrals, or that their reputation is what gets them all of their business, but how many work this source of leads proactively?

It is great to be proud of your record of providing a high quality service or product, but once again, you should not be relying on “chance” to get referrals. If you do a good job, people will talk and you will get referrals, but we are talking about being proactive, seeing every new customer as 1 new customer + 2 referrals. Put this equation into your employee handbook alongside the information on the lifetime value of customers:

Every customer I speak to or meet is potentially worth $X (insert your lifetime value figure) to our business over five years.

Each time we thrill a new customer, we will ask them to refer two customers of equal quality.

Random Quote - Fresh Thinking

2007-03-09T14:36:00.000-08:00

"The only way to change the world is to imagine it different to the way it is today. Apply too much of the wisdom and knowledge that got us here, and you end up right where you started. Take a fresh look from a new perspective and get a new result."

J. Allard - Microsoft, founding team for Xbox, Zune and famous internal Internet memo.

Week 28 - Endorsements. It's Easy to Create Your First New Income Stream

2007-03-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

When setting out to create an endorsement program for your business you need to test and measure. What things could you test? You could test various offers of services. You could test mailing different age groups within the customer base, you could test sending to more females versus males, you could test sending only to customers who reside in the surrounding area, you could even test the paper color when you mail!

Stop at this point and make two lists.

Who already has my customers? (Think about all the possible products or services that go BEFORE yours – example, a tradesman can seek out an on-site manager who looks after 30 apartments in an apartment block or an office furniture company looks for office renovation specialists who need to replace interior fittings).
Whose products and services could I sell to my customers? (Think of all the products or services that could be of use after using your product or service – example, could an in-ground pool business offer a 3 year program of pool maintenance and chemicals with every new installation?

Implementing an endorsement program

Once you have decided what products and services you plan to add to your offering you need to systematically promote them. As has been stated numerous times already, if the program is left to chance it will be a failure. Try to build the extra product selection into your sales questionnaire and ensure that all employees are fully trained on the benefits of the extra offerings. A word of warning, the occasional customer will see your offerings in a cynical light. They might suggest that it is purely the extra profits you make which are motivating you but you can turn this around. For example:

A mechanic arranges an insurance appraisal for any car going through the workshop at no cost or obligation.

Cynical view: they are trying to sell me expensive insurance.

Turn it around: as a valued customer we want to ensure you are getting the absolute best deal possible for that make and model of car. We may even save you money overall, but our motivation is to make your motoring experience a more pleasurable one. No obligation.

A gym offers special pricing on shoes, massage, personal trainers, skin care, surgeon, business coaching, travel, weight control programs, sporting events and organises social clubs.

Cynical view: they are trying to sell me things I don’t need.

Turn it around: as a valued member, we are trying to ensure that you are getting the best value for your membership through the use of appropriate clothing and footwear. Further, being fit and healthy is only part of the story. We help you enjoy the benefits of your training long after you have left the gym! No obligation.

Think complementary services; what else could you offer whilst you have your customer’s attention? Flip it around, could others give your product away as a premium add-on to their product or service? What about a sample of your product and service? For example, if you have a window tinting business can you do a wholesale deal with a car dealership where they market the tinting as a “free” extra (having paid you a wholesale rate of course)?

The power of an endorsement cannot be overstated, especially when compared with other advertising and marketing methods. You will need to seek businesses that have the trust and respect of their customers. In other words, think carefully about the nature of the relationship between the customer and the business serving them, it needs to be strong.

Week 27 - Working the Hidden Gold Mine

2007-02-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

For the next few weeks I am going to focus on building new income streams to support your business. How many products or services do you currently sell or rather, how many products or services are you currently relying on for an income? The best way to check this is to ask “would I still be in business if people stopped buying my main product?” The danger is obvious, market trends, product obsolescence, price competition, even the potential failure of your own health make this a very risky and “reactive” way to run your business.

By establishing new lines of business you can create a safety net for your business via increased sales and profits. If these new income streams are good you may actually find yourself having to work less. This is not unrealistic. Many of the new income streams may require little or no extra effort, they simply leverage off your existing products or services.

Now you could be thinking for example, “I own a concrete truck, there is NO risk as people will always need concrete!” Well, in the words of the late John F. Kennedy, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining”. Today it might not seem that you need to offer new products or services, but change is inevitable and you need to protect your business. The relationships and income streams you put into place during the good times will be critical to you when your business is tested by stress.

One of the easiest ways to increase your turnover and your profits is to offer your existing clients other services or products which are complementary to your own. Many business owners already have these relationships set-up in some way, but as I keep saying, it is not a systematic approach. Essentially the relationships are set-up in an ad hoc fashion. To really take advantage of these relationships and build strong new income streams for your business, you must begin to proactively plan and nurture these third party relationships. So where do you start?

As the business owner you have the opportunity to:

Sell or recommend other third party products or services to your customers
Market your relationship with your customers to trusted third parties
Remain in constant contact, resulting in sale after sale

Who has your customers before and after you do?

Before or after a customer buys your product or service, what else are they buying? For example, when a travel site sells a flight, the buyer might also be booking a hotel room, hire car and travel insurance. That might seem like an obvious example, so how about a cosmetic surgeon? Prior to their visit they might be members of a gym or skin clinic, or any other organization that aims to help people improve the way they look and feel. You see there are always products and services that go before or after what you sell or provide. Some other examples:

Office Computer Supplier

Before: Network cabling, associated network products, computer workstations
After: Software training or an on-going system maintenance service

Mortgage Lending Company

Before: Life or income protection insurance, real estate agents who have prospects without finance
After: Furniture removalists, solicitors, real estate agents for when a loan is approved

Refrigeration Company

Before: Architects, builders, shop fitting companies, food wholesalers
After: Shelving companies, food storage providers, maintenance contractors.

Menswear

Before: Gyms, fitness instructors, stylists, barbers, men’s magazines and web sites,
After: Barbers, shoe stores, personal products such as aftershave and skin care.

Sporting Goods Store

Before: Sporting teams, school sports programs, health food stores, associations such as Life Saving.
After: Sports clubs and bars, physiotherapists and massage therapists.

Next week we will look at striking deals with these companies and building the pillars to support your business long term.

Random Quote - Service

2007-02-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

There are no such things as service industries. There are only industries whose service components are greater or less than those of other industries. Everybody is in service.

Theodore Levitt, Production Line Approach to Service, HBR

Week 26 – Chance: Unknown and Unpredictable Phenomenon - Let’s Avoid That!

2007-02-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

Since “Week 8” back in October of last year I have been talking about marketing ideas, their foundations and how they all tie together to create compelling results. Before we move on, let’s wrap up.

If you only take only thing away from all this reading, take this:

The best marketing programs will fail to perform if you do not have an overall strategy and systems to support that.

The good news….once we have looked at creating new income streams I will go straight into how to create these systems which will help you to deliver on your strategy.

Look back through the previous 10 weeks and ensure you have considered your position on each of the suggestions. As a shortcut, here are the key messages:

Help your customers to find what they didn’t know they wanted. Help your customers to get everything they need to do the job.
Sales tools are not part of some elaborate con. They are supposed to help educate the customer. You must believe this yourself or your customers will not believe you.
Use questions to up sell like crazy! This is why you are in business, so don’t be ashamed of this. Remember however that the approach must assist the customer to get the result they want, not just help you sell what you want.
Always follow-up on customers who have recently purchased from you. Don’t stop there, build on the relationship and you will reap the rewards in future sales and word of mouth.
One time follow-up produces one time results. Systematically follow up, and never give up.
No matter what you sell, your customer is taking a risk at the point they decide to purchase. You can increase your conversion rate today, just by introducing risk reversal. You may not be refunding on a purchase, but every business in the world can do something to remove some/all of the risk from a transaction.

Week 25 - Remove the Risk and for Goodness Sake, Follow-Up!

2007-02-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

Buying from your business is a risk! Most people in business understand that a guarantee is something that takes the risk out of any transaction. One of the barriers to a prospective customer making a decision is that without this guarantee, they are taking all of the risk. In other words, you tell them it is a great product or solution and ask for their money but the risk is all theirs. If your promises do not eventuate, they are the losers. The hesitation caused by this risk should not be underestimated.

When you last purchased a product that you had not bought before, did you feel a sense of vulnerability? Will it work? Is this brand reliable? The final decision you made involved a risk on your part. If you put prospects at ease through information and risk reversal, you will see your sales increase.

The key message is to reach out to your customers, understand the feelings that they have surrounding the purchase of your product or service and develop ways to make them feel comfortable. It might not jump out at you, but don’t simply dismiss the idea… “We cannot accept the stock back so how can we reverse the risk?” When you put one of these systems into place it really forces you to think about your product or service and how it is delivered. It puts your whole organization on notice that there will be pain if you do not deliver… not such a bad thing huh?

One of the craziest things in the world of business is that people fail to follow up. Once a customer has purchased a product or service they rarely hear from the company again. But follow up is much more than simply calling or writing to your old customers. Following up should become a religion within your business as it can be a perfect way to increase your conversion rate or tap a huge source of new business. Customers often need to be helped across the line and you can help them by making it easy for them to buy.

• First and foremost, follow-up customers who have recently purchased. Make this part of your system, that is, make it a rule that every customer is called two days after the purchase. Not only can you check on their level of satisfaction, you are opening a new dialogue that could potentially yield yet another related sale.

• Follow up your introductory letters regarding your business – tell your prospect you were calling to check that the letter was received.

• Follow up your quotes – keep following them up until you have a decision (even if the decision is a “no”, the lead may still be valuable, more on that later.) When following up your quotations, reiterate your USP, tell the prospect how to act and perhaps give them a one time offer for an immediate response. For example, “…we know you wanted the top of the line pool cleaner, we can actually throw that in for nothing if you sign the paperwork Wednesday.”

• Follow up prospects who have failed to return your calls – don’t consider your job done once you have left them a message. Your job is not done until you have spoken to them.

Once again: one time follow up will produce one time results. Remember, your competitors are always knocking on your customer’s doors so you need to build a wall in their minds to block out any other advances. The wall will only go up when they are hooked on the way that you treat them. Always see follow up as the ‘long term bonding process’. Is anyone in your business making follow-up calls?

Week 24 - Testimonials Offer Real Confidence

2007-02-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

You can take the role of an advisor one step further – incorporate a list of commitments that will reinforce your credibility as the advisor. Give the list to every prospect that calls or walks through your front door. Ideally it should be a combination of your USP, clearly stated, backed up with your decision criteria questions. Let’s use a fictitious electrical contractor, “Sparks Electrical”, as an example:
------------------------------------------------------

Many electrical services may seem the same at first…

We’ll arrive on-time, or we won’t charge our call out fee
Our contractor will be dressed neatly and cleanly and provide identification to you upon arrival
Our contractor will perform the duties as per the written quotation in a timely and professional manner.
At our cost, our contractor will perform a full wiring safety check and provide you with a written recommendation on the overall safety of your electrical system.
Our contractor will, if required, install a smoke detector for you at no cost.
Our contactor will leave your premises free of debris and will provide you with a 6th month written guarantee on all work performed.

Call us today for a no obligation free quotation, we will be happy to help.

------------------------------------------------------

But is that enough to convince your prospects? Why should they believe any of the statements you make? The key addition to the list are testimonials from past customers. These testimonials will back up your own statements and will show the prospect that your promises are not empty. Consider the impact of adding these testimonials to the bottom of your handout:

Sparks Electrical arrived on time, carried out all of the work well and even cleaned up their mess! Before leaving, their technician even replaced a few blown light bulbs at no cost and left me with a written guarantee. I highly recommend their services. B Smith, San Francisco, CA.

I have never had any contractor offer to vacuum my hallway before – congratulations Sparks on a truly remarkable level of service. J. Thompson, Fairfax, CA

I am so sick and tired of taking time off to meet contractors, only to have them arrive late or not show up at all. When I hired Sparks Electrical, it was for their on time promise alone and let me tell you, they have never let me down. Our carpets are expensive but the technicians are always neat and tidy, I would strongly recommend them to anyone who is tired of being treated as second class! F Cohen, San Jose, CA

Week 23 - Become an Advisor – It’s Your Responsibility!

2007-01-26T10:47:00.000-08:00

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, (or it that a corrupt MP3 these days?!?!) are you measuring how many prospects you turn into paying customers? This is a crucial measurement because it will highlight to you where you may be losing revenue and help work out what to do about it. Lots of business owners go on “feelings” – it “feels” a bit slower this month. These days are finished! Google can give you every thinkable metric for your on-line marketing so there is no excuse for you not to be trying to replicate this in the physical world be that your website, showroom or offices.

Every time a prospect walks into your store or calls you on the telephone there is an opportunity for you to lead the conversation. Some people may know all about your product or service and therefore need little help from you but the vast majority are looking for information and answers to their questions. People in general don’t want to sound “stupid” so they probably won’t ask you anything. If you ask if you can help them many simply reply that “they are just looking” or alternatively, “where are your x products kept?”

Everyday, people buy products and services that may not meet their needs entirely, sometimes not at all! It is up to you to not let people drift, not to be “rudderless” in the way they purchase from you. Control the conversation to ensure your customer obtains everything they need.

You will appreciate the benefit if you can recall how you felt when you bought something you had no clue about. How did you feel when you were at cash register and the employee tells you what you have purchased won’t work without some other part? You feel glad that they told you, glad that you don’t have to come back.

So this is not a selfish initiative – sure, it may well increase the average dollar sale, but as we have already said, providing the best solution to the customer will pay you back many times more. This can be as simple as having “no batteries” on Christmas Day. How does that make you feel? Or the fact that laser printers never come with the cable to attach them to your computer?

In practice, finding out what you prospect needs is easy. For example, a parent who is buying a computer games console may know nothing about it so what if you asked them:

Who are you purchasing this for?
What is your budget?
How old are your kids?
What types of games do your kids like the best?
What type of television will you be connecting this to?
Do you want the ability to connect to the internet or other kids?

Use their answers to guide them and watch your business prosper.

“Customers attach value to a product in proportion to its perceived ability to help solve their problems or meet their needs. All else is derivative.” Theodore Levitt, father of the “What business are you really in?” concept through his Harvard Business Review article, Marketing Myopia.

Random Musings - The "Ad" World Collision

2007-01-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this one is not part of the program, but I had to say it!

It’s an exciting and interesting time right now in advertising. Clearly contextual and search based Internet advertising have changed the landscape forever. But with Google (and others) looking to apply their scientific tools to other mediums like radio, print and TV, what will advertising look like in 2015?

At the end of the day, the old advertising model was to interrupt you, get your attention and perhaps get you to buy some things you didn’t know you wanted until you were interrupted! Companies have interrupted us using humor, color, noise and shock value to name just a few. Some of these we enjoy so rather than an interruption, we see it as entertainment. Is that the point of advertising? Probably not, but hey, it makes life interesting. Text links certainly do not, but there is a much higher chance that the link you are looking at is actually relevant to you.

I wonder out loud how things will look. You have the scientific, pay per lead based technology crowd screaming in a bus towards the old school creative crowd in a similar vehicle. One thing is for sure, there will be nowhere for the old schoolers to hide if their advertising campaigns are not producing leads.

Ultimately for business owners, these highly qualified prospects should be better for their bottom line and theoretically cost them less to attract. I just hope we don’t "throw out the baby with the bathwater" to use the old cliche - the world would be a pretty bland place if algorithms decide everything we should and should not see.

Week 22 - Word of Mouth is Critical

2007-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

Word of mouth advertising overlaps some other areas such as endorsements and referrals. For example, a referral or endorsement might come from a friend in the street who is essentially spreading your message through word of mouth advertising. Ultimately word of mouth will be driven by the overall experience you provide to customers. I cannot stress this enough. It is no good having a nice referral card for your customer to hand around if you disappointed them during their last visit.

To me, an amazing experience is always based on a genuine desire to educate customers and further, help them find the best solution to their problem (even if it is not yours!)

Think about the types of questions you ask when you are buying a product or service you know little about. Guess what? We all ask simple questions we think we already know the answers to! That’s right, if we are buying a car, we might ask how many kW’s the car has or what the engine size is, without really understanding how this will affect our driving experience. We ask these questions because we don’t want to sound stupid, the exact same reason that people used to ask a vacuum cleaner salesman “how many watts does this model have?” So this is a critical point, if you educate the customer, they won’t feel stupid any more. More importantly they will ask the RIGHT questions. When people asked a vacuum salesperson about “watts”, what they really should have been asking was “which vacuum will most effectively clean my house, year in, year out?”

When prospects start to throw questions at you regarding one or two features of your product, you need to find out what the client is actually asking. What problem is this person trying to solve?

Above all, both you and your employees need to be conscientious about developing word of mouth networks. The goal? Every person who walks though your door ends up being a salesperson or ambassador for your company, always willing to spread a clear and concise message.

“…devote 75% of your marketing dollars and energy to establishing and maintaining word of mouth networks” Tom Peters, “Thriving On Chaos”

Week 21 - What is PR and How Can it Help Me?

2007-01-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

For something to be newsworthy, you don’t have to wait until something amazing happens in your business. Consider the following example of Stonyfield Farm, a US based producer of yoghurt and other dairy products. They had a huge Public Relations (PR) success based on nothing other than an innovative approach to building a connection with their consumers:

In the early 1990s Stonyfield Farm announced a "Have a Cow" program which encouraged frequent purchases and which also educated young customers about where the company gets its milk. Consumers who bought five cartons of Stonyfield Farm Yogurt, or 10 servings of its newest frozen yogurt (note this effort was also aimed at selling more product up front!), received a free photo and biography of a cow that produced milk for the company, an adoption certificate, plus a free subscription to the newsletter. Demand far exceeded the number of cows, so many consumers shared their adoptees.

The result of the program was increased sales, but more importantly, the company received publicity from local area newspapers and magazines. The press coverage helped Stonyfield Farm get exclusive frozen yogurt accounts, such as the University of Connecticut and Au Bon Pain, a bakery with more than 120 shops nationwide at the time. The bottom line? "Word of mouth builds better loyalty than advertising," says Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO, Stonyfield Farm.

The burning PR question: What is it about this new customer or event or service that could be interesting to the media?

Or

“How can I create interest in my product or service and ultimately attract the attention of the media?

Anyone who has seen Richard Branson parachute into a product launch or cover the British Airways Concord with a Virgin banner will know what I mean!

Before leaving PR, let’s talk about the number one thing you can do to generate free publicity. Simply become a genuine expert in your field. By studying all aspects of your business or industry and then mixing it with the necessary networking, you could find yourself being quoted whenever the broader issue comes up in the press. Get involved in your local industry group, make yourself heard, write letters to newspaper editors – and anything to build your credibility. Before long you will get enquiries from reporters asking for your opinion. The plan then becomes self fulfilling. The more you are quoted, the more you are seen as the expert, the more people will trust your business which should translate into more sales.

Random Quote - What is Your Advertising Objective?

2007-01-13T15:32:00.000-08:00

Famous author Jim Rohn once said about advertising:

"You can feed your ego or feed your family!"

Keep that one in mind when you develop your next ad program. :-)

Week 20 - Ask Them to Buy From You!

2007-01-13T15:31:00.001-08:00

It is simply amazing how many advertisements fail to ask the prospect to act. They talk price, they talk shape, they talk color, they talk location, they talk features and benefits, but they fail to ask the prospect to act. Tell your prospect to pick up the phone now, tell them to write to you immediately, tell them to visit your webpage to register – make it clear and make it strong. Using a strong headline and convincing copy in your advertisement will do most of the work, but always finish by telling the prospect exactly how they can take action – immediately.

Example: Call us right now on 800 xxx xxx and ask for the no obligation appraisal of your property!

Each time you produce a new advertisement, run it through this checklist and just make sure you have not forgotten anything.

1. Is my advertisement designed to generate a direct response?
2. Can I measure the effectiveness of this advertisement?
3. Is my headline clear and does it promise a benefit?
4. Does it have the “Broadest Possible Appeal” for the market I am trying to reach?
5. Does the body copy of my advertisement discuss benefits backed up by facts and not features of the product or service?
6. Have I incorporated my USP at every opportunity?
7. Have I asked the prospect to act now?

Week 19 - Who Goes There?

2006-12-30T13:39:00.001-08:00

OK so you are doing direct response but you need an offer. Before you decide how you are going to describe this offer, you have to be crystal clear on whom you are talking to:

1) You must know who your prospects are and where they are
2) You must know what they want, need or desire

You can find this information by asking your customers or by measuring and testing your various marketing initiatives. Don’t skip the step or you’ll be communicating with the wrong audience. Crafting the words which you use to describe your product or offer is similar to crafting your headline. You must promise the reader benefits and ask them to act. Broadly speaking, the body of your advertisement should:

1. Reinforce your headline in your opening remarks
2. Specifically state your offer
3. Develop and support your offer, offer reasons why the prospect should believe you and take action. Tell the reader why you are offering the special price, bulk rate etc.
4. Most importantly, tell the prospect how to act.

The words you use to elaborate in these areas are up to you. Run small tests to see what is working and what is not. Never assume that you have found the perfect combination of words or that your wording could not get any better. Keep refining the ad, especially if your response rates start to decline. Most importantly, try not to use the “technical language” which is thrown around in your industry. Remember that the offer should be directed towards your readers in words they can understand. And finally, don’t use the ad to tell them how great your business is.

P.S. – Speaking of headlines, here are my four golden rules for making them as effective as possible:

1. Pick out only the people you can interest. Focus your headline on the intended recipient only, for example: “Calling all nurses who find car parking difficult in the city!” versus “Great deal on parking near to the hospital/city.”

2. People don’t read ads for amusement. Offer some valuable information and a reason to read on.

3. Be specific. Don’t try to be funny or witty – state the offer or the reason to read on (example, “Rid your house of termites today and stop them returning forever – guaranteed” versus “The Bug Stops Here”).

4. An oldy but a goody - promise the reader a benefit! (Example “Do you want to stop hair loss and restart growth within 90 days – guaranteed?” versus “Is your hair falling out?”)

Week 18 - Direct Response Only!

2006-12-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

The most important aspect of any advertisement is that you call the reader to action. Tell them what you sell, why you are selling it, how it will benefit them and then ask them to take action!

Now that sounds simple enough, but how many advertisements do you see (in fact stop now and have a look around you) that are simply offering no information? We see them all the time - companies run quarter page newspaper advertisements and leave most of the available space blank - a small headline in the corner might read “buy only the best”. Worse, it might not say anything…just the name of the company, as if we should be impressed, as if we should leap out of our seat and make a purchase.

One of the greatest business building minds of all time, Jay Abraham, calls this type of advertising “institutional advertising”. He believes it is conducted because the owner of the business is more interested in creating a masterpiece than they are in generating sales!

David Ogilvy, millionaire advertising executive and founder of Ogilvy and Mather, asks:

“What is a good advertisement… An advertisement that pleases you because of its style or an advertisement that sells the most?

Look at all the advertising you have done over the past few years – did it ask for a direct response or did it simply tell the readers how great your company is? This is not an attack on designers or other creative folks – they have usually spent years studying exactly what we humans find visually appealing. So don’t rule them out. Just don’t let them rule your advertisement! You control the headline, the wording and the call to action. They can control how they present this in a visually appealing way.

Some Direct Response examples:

1. Call now!
2. Return this coupon by mail for your free brochure
3. Come into our store with this advertisement
4. Visit our website and enter your unique code
5. Mention this ad for a free sample of our product

Week 17 - The Only Purpose of Advertising is to Make Sales

2006-12-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

The success of Google over the last 5 years comes largely down to one thing – business owners are willing to pay handsomely for leads which result in actual sales. What was lacking prior to the Internet was this ability to scientifically track just how you ad was performing. Whilst the Internet and these methods are new, the concept of advertising to create sales opportunities is certainly not. There is a classic book by Claude Hopkins called Scientific Marketing which was written in 1923!. Don’t be put off by the title, you should easily be able to read it in a weekend. Hopkins declares that:

“The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.”

Regardless of what you have heard or seen in the past, for most small to medium sized businesses the only focus should be the number of qualified leads that are generated from your advertising. Qualified means that when people do call or visit, they are seriously looking for the solution that you provide. With a few cute graphics or a joke, just about anyone can get the phone to ring but will the caller actually want your service at the price and terms you offer it?

Let’s look at 6 golden rules you should follow for all of the advertising you do, on or offline.

1. Firstly be consistent. All of your marketing messages must project the same message.
2. Always incorporate your USP.
3. Always ensure you are using a direct response method (such as a discount coupon). You must call your prospect to action.
4. Always create an effective headline.
5. Always write effective copy (the words we use to describe the offer).
6. Ensure you are applying the Broadest Possible Appeal rule.

Week 16 - Hate to Sell, Then Don't - Educate!

2006-12-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

Without a doubt, the most successful salespeople don’t seem to push anything on you. These people sell without selling and by educating you on purchasing a product or service they are in effect helping you to set “decision criteria” in your mind. In other words, you end up asking yourself “On what basis am I evaluating this purchase?” The education you have been given be it brief or a 3 hour presentation helps this process, so in effect the teacher can be a leader.

Information and education empower the purchaser. Have you been in a liquor store and seen the little pictures of food beside the name of the wine? You know, BBQ Steak for the Syrah, shrimp for the Sauvignon Blanc? How do these make you feel? Empowered I bet and as a bonus, it completely leads you away from making a decision on price alone.

Decision criteria are real – whether you know it or not you have decision criteria for coffee. Starbucks have set it as a warm, clean inviting atmosphere with jazz music and helpful knowledgeable staff. They mix this with a consistent coffee experience – notice I did not say superior, in fact many smaller chains and independents have amazing coffee, but lack the “new world” criteria.

Week 15 - Changing The Purchase Rules Whilst Contributing to Society

2006-11-25T17:44:00.000-08:00

You may be familiar with Dyson vacuum cleaners. James Dyson first brought the Dual Cyclone Vacuum Cleaner to market in 1992 after his technology had been ignored by the almost the entire electrical goods community around the world.

What was the decision criteria for a vacuum prior to the Dyson being launched? Features? Power? Power was probably the big one as we often see the manufacturers upping the number of “watts” posted across the packaging. Now each time one of the major competitors unveils more power in their machines, the others simply follow suit. Adding extra power could certainly not be patent protected and the consumer simply remained fixated on the idea that more watts must be better. Price probably came in second place on the decision criteria list.

What is the new decision criteria for a vacuum cleaner?

Power still gets a mention, but questions on “style (amazingly), suction performance and air filtration” have moved Dyson’s business to the top of the pile. Dyson products cannot be compared with the 1700 watt model sitting next to it, nor can they be compared on price. In fact forget price. Dyson vacuum cleaners can be 7 times more expensive than their competition, but they have what the market now perceives as the best solution to their problem and are prepared to pay for it!

The Dyson story demonstrates that marketing is not about playing with words or adding trivial services to our core business to trick consumers. Price driven retailers told Dyson that he stood little chance of sales success – Dyson are now the market leader!

It is important that your marketing programs are consistent and the quality as good as it can be, but it is just as important that you believe in what you are doing and today more than ever, how it fits into and helps society.

In her book, Fences and Windows, Naomi Klein discusses those big multi-national companies who, with the help of a PR agency, decide that they “want to be your friend”. She describes those businesses which spend so much time and money trying to convince consumers that they really care about them while at the same time, behaving in a manner anything but! To use Klein’s words, do you have a “communications problem” or a “reality problem?” Innovation, service and marketing are not about spin, they are about a genuine commitment to turning your business into a productive part of society.

Week 14 - Banging Your Customers Over The Head With Benefits

2006-11-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

I talked in Week 11 about your USP, that statement which conveys why you exist and how what you offer is the best possible solution to your prospect’s problems. Before we dig deeper let’s be clear that marketing is not a substitute for product or service performance. As they say in America, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig! Ensure you have the systems in place to live up to your USP; you don’t want all that effort expended getting people through the door only to leave them dissatisfied.

As you think more about what your USP should, be consider the following:

Ask yourself what you provide that is unique, bigger, faster, more creative? Also ask your trusted suppliers and customers what they think about your business in these areas. Combine the feedback.

Once you have this bedded down, your USP should be strong enough to impress strangers. Test this on a few – ask them if they faced a choice in your industry whether or not your USP would lead them to call you. Test and Refine.

Your USP conveys everything that is unique about your business but you need to lead your customers to understand how this translates into actual benefits. A “decision criteria” can be used to eliminate your competition from every piece of business that is available - if deployed correctly.

Creating decision criteria is a straight forward value added service you can provide to any prospect that phones, writes or physically enters your premises. The basic idea of the decision criteria is that regardless of whether or not the prospect chooses your business, there are a number of things they should look out for when actually purchasing. In other words, provide a list of criteria and suggest they use it as a guide to purchasing the product or service.

As an example let’s look at selling your home…

Imagine that a young couple wants to sell their home in a trendy suburb. The sales agent can say “choose me, we have the lowest commission and we guarantee we will get you a great price for your property”. A second agent might say to the couple, “many agents will tell you the same thing and at times, our services can seem very similar. To help guide you through the jargon jungle, won’t you take this sheet that explains the best way to sell your home for the highest possible price and least amount of anguish. There is certainly no obligation, we just want to be sure you are fully informed about all the potential pitfalls associated with selling your home.”

The decision criteria that the agent hands to the vendor might read something like this:

---------------------------------------

Peppermint Grove Realty – Eight points to look for in any agent who offers to sell your home.

1. Always deal through an agent who is a member of the Real Estate Institute which will give you a level of professional protection (Intent - probably not unique, but sets the tone for the following points)

2. Ensure your appointed agent knows the area well. Ask your agent how many homes have sold in the suburb in the last 12 months and what the average price has been? (Intent - Obviously you wouldn’t ask this question unless you were experienced and had a great track record in the area. The object is to highlight that expertise and eliminate your competition who may not posses the same experience.)

3. Most house sale prices are set by following the trend of the street or surrounding suburb. Ask your agent if they will provide you with a complimentary copy of all sales prices in your suburb over the past 12 months. This will help to guide you on the price you should be getting for your property. (Intent - A small value add you might provide to vendors will also eliminate the agents who try to set an unrealistically high or low selling figure).

4. The more people who see your home for sale, the more chance you have of selling it. Ask your appointed agent what journals and newspapers they intend to advertise in and ask them if they pass on discounted rates to keep your advertising costs low? (Intent - You advertise heavily and you receive discounts for that. You may or may not want to pass that onto the vendor. The point is you can once again differentiate yourself from your competition if you wish.)

5. Obviously it pays to present your property well on inspection days. Ask your appointed agent if they provide a free one hour home and garden refresh service prior to the open house. (Intent - Another value add to get your competition on the back foot).

6. Further, if you house is vacant, prospective purchasers may have a hard time visualizing how they would fit into the house. Ask your appointed agent whether they have access to temporary furniture at discounted rates. (Intent - Once again, a point of value for the vendor to consider, but you also have a great deal lined up should they wish to take advantage.)

7. Your time is valuable. Ask your agent if they will turn up to open houses and other agreed appointments on-time, every time. (Intent - Try to weed out those non-performers in the industry but getting the vendor to ask if they are reliable. Of course all will answer yes, but should they fail to appear on time, it becomes a lie. By the way, not everyone can be on time, every time, but a simple phone call can solve the problem. It is all about being considerate of the prospect’s time).

8. The nerves on auction day can get to anyone. Rather than drop your price, ask your agent if they will agree to stick by your reserve price no matter how the auction goes. (Intent - Once again, trying to weed out those agents who will promise a high selling price to get the business, only to put pressure on the vendor to accept a lower offer on auction day.)

If you have any further questions regarding the sale of your home, feel free to call one of our professional advisers 24 hours a day ……

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If you have ever gone through the process of selling your home, I think you would agree that you would find this list at least somewhat interesting. The key is to add value. Anyone can write out a list stating all of the reasons why they should be chosen, but presenting them in this way creates questions in the prospect’s mind and then goes on to answer these questions straight away. You don’t see any mention of the estate agency in the points themselves, but the agency will have a fantastic and unique answer to every one of them.

When was the last time you were handed a list of these helpful hints by anyone? Was it at a bedding shop? A motor mechanic? You may have never seen them in use so you can understand what an immense impact it could have in your business, not to mention what you could do to your competition..

Week 13 - Would You Wait?

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Being unique is tough these days so some business owners feel that if the phone rings and they don’t drop everything, they can lose a sale. This plays havoc with your schedule and really gets back to a reactive versus a proactive approach to running your business.

But let’s take a scenario; if you have a urgent job to be done and you use Google or the Yellow Pages to find a solution, you are likely to keep calling until someone says they can attend straight away. The numbers you call will probably only be determined by location of the business, “is it nearby?”

But consider this; if one of your friends or family had referred you to a particular business because they always turn up on time, charge wholesale rates for spare parts, always leave the house clean and would guarantee their work for six months, would you wait until the next day to get your problem fixed? Unless your toilet is spilling out into the living room the answer is almost always “yes”. So the business owner who has set up systems and operates proactively can say “Not today”, without losing the opportunity. That is something for you to look forward to.

Week 12 - What Do Your Customers Expect From You?

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Take a moment now and look through the Yellow Pages or do a generic search on Google for your product. Go ahead and look under electrical contractors or exhaust systems or gardening services. How many companies are telling you about extra services they provide and how they are unique, special or different? Perhaps not surprisingly, there are only one or two. Everyone else is just screaming ME TOO. Me too takes many forms such as “24 hours”, “all services”, “guaranteed” and “all models”.

Customers have expectations, that is, there are certain things they just expect when making a purchase of anything.

They expect to be treated with dignity. They expect that the sheets in a hotel will be clean. They expect that a hot dish in a restaurant will in fact be hot. The point here is that many business owners offer services they consider special, but the market simply considers that they are part of the normal service.

Expected:

Friendly Service
Competitive Prices
Home Delivery
All areas
Frequent Flyer Miles

Unexpected:

Free carpet cleaning
Theatre tickets with hotel stay
Genuine discount at leading restaurant (not just a free dessert with a $75 main course!)
A free birthday cake delivered on your special day
A call from a restaurant to see how your meal was

You have to keep on top of what’s expected and what’s not. As I said earlier if your competitors are any good they will start doing the same things so you need to constantly look at ways to surprise and delight your customers.

How many of your current extras are just “expected” by the market?

Random Quote - Priceless

2006-10-29T16:21:00.000-08:00

Authors Diana LaSalle and Terry Britton observe in their book Priceless: “…when someone is asked why he uses whitening toothpaste, he might say to have whiter teeth. If probed further to find out why this is important, the consumer may say it makes him look better, a typical feature/benefit response. When asked again, he might finally reveal that looking better gives him greater confidence and self esteem. You can’t really put a price on feeling better about yourself can you? So these then are the priceless attributes of the product.”

Week 11 - Why Should I Buy From You?

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Earlier we discussed the importance of being strategic, or proactive in your approach to building your business and remaining competitive. Your Unique Strategic Position (USP) is the key ingredient for achieving this. David Ogilvy, the famous advertising executive and founder of Ogilvy and Mather defines the “position” in USP as “what the product does, and who it is for.” I would take that one step forward and say “what the product does, who it is for and how it is different.”

Asking you to differentiate yourself as soon as possible is simplistic. A competitive advantage can be fleeting, we all know that. The guy across the street who offers “two for one” is soon copied by all of the local retailers. Therefore your goal should be to make your business the only choice through a totally outstanding offer, putting you out of the reach of your competitors.

Choose your niche carefully. No business can be all things to all people. Perhaps you should revisit “Week 1” to ensure your chosen USP is in alignment with where YOU want to go as a person.

If your USP has not been clearly defined, it is most likely not being communicated by your employees. That is one big problem but even worse is how we run our business in this mode: WE REACT, we lower our prices, we scream ME TOO and try to win the prospect over by promising things that we cannot deliver (ever had a contractor turn up late?).

Finally a good USP will set expectations about your product or service and position your business in the mind of your prospect.

What are some questions you can ask yourself when devising your USP?

1. What problem or problems do you solve for your customers?

2. What are the top 5 reasons your current customers buy from you?