photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

On many occasions, I have advised you to offer higher-priced, higher-value products and services because they focus you on high-lifetime-value customers whose loyalty extends beyond what’s on sale this week.

Likewise, we’ve talked about using those higher-priced products and services to “subsidize” the value-priced part of your business so that you can find more high-lifetime-value clients from that group.

What I’ve been urging you to do is build a customer ascension ladder.

It’s not like you haven’t seen this before. You’re probably on several of them and might not realize it. Despite that, it’s entirely possible that you haven’t used it strategically in your business.

Ladders you know

Take a look at Kraft cheese.

If you want sliced cheese in a wrapper, you might buy Kraft Singles. In their product ladder, Velveeta Slices are a bit of a luxury item. To step beyond that, you have to go to a higher-value Kraft brand name…Cracker Barrel and you might have to slice it yourself.

Some of you might never buy these brands, but you buy cheese, you’re in another vendor’s cheese ladder (Kraft may own them too).

A simple ladder that everyone is familiar with is car brands.

Ford Motor Company has Ford, Mercury and Lincoln. General Motors has Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac (among others). These brands illustrate simple ascension ladders.

Back in the olden days, your typical Chevy customer longed to step up the ladder and get a Cadillac someday and in fact, doing so was a sign to their co-workers, friends and family that they had “made it”. Likewise, many Ford customers longed to own a Lincoln Continental.

Today, things are bit more muddled in the car business and these things aren’t the universal success/status symbols like they once were. F250′s, Hummers and Escalades have supplanted them to some extent, illustrating that the idea and the desires are still valid.

Where’s your ladder?

What works for Kraft, Ford and General Motors also works no matter what you sell.

The ladder works for firewood, imported crystal, septic tanks or legal services…and for whatever you do.

Whatever you sell, you can usually sell more by designing an ascension ladder for your customers. It isn’t just about selling more, more, more. It’s about matching what your customers want to what you sell…which tends to make you sell more.

If some of your customers need/want an Escalade and all you sell is Yugos (the “Mona Lisa of bad cars“), you’re going to lose them. If selling Escalades isn’t your thing, that’s fine. Even so, deal with it strategically as you should know how long this progression takes based on customer

You may already have a makeshift ladder in place. It isn’t like “good, better, best” is some sort of secret of brilliant business owners.

What you seldom see is a business strategically designed to move people from through the tiers of “good, better, best”, identifying the most likely “best” buyers based on their behavior, buying habits and other factors (such as demographics and psychographics).

Designing your ladder

Take a hard look at your customers from end to end. Do the same with your prospects, who tend to be substantially different from your long-time customers.

For example, consider the differences between a customer of 20 years who is starting to think about retirement and a customer who just got their first job. Their needs, values and *what* they value day-to-day might be completely different as it relates to your products and services. “First job” is just one example and may not have any impact on their choices for what you sell. Something else definitely will, so pay attention.

If you take this task seriously, you should be able to segment your customers into groups based on any number of things from age-based needs to buy frequency to number of calls for help. You may find that there are correlations between any of these individual segments.

What you’re looking for is segments that would respond positively to the same message, the same product/service offer. Other customers might use a different version of the same service that may not interest this particular group. Thus, the importance of the message/offer.

Next….Show them the ladder you’ve designed.

photo credit: rainy city

Last weekend I spent some time visiting my youngest son at college in Western Oregon.

While there, we visited the Portland Saturday Market, which is full of homemade goods from art to clothing to food.

While many of the booths offered business cards that had a website on them, a very small percentage of the booths displayed a website address.

I didn’t see a single QR code.

Extending your reach

After talking to several of the booth owners, I got the impression that many were showing up every Saturday or Sunday at the market and “letting business happen to them”. That’s why I mentioned the booths not displaying a website address or a QR code.

It’s right to be focused on making sales that day, but you want to make it as easy as possible to remember your site, share it and come back for more – even if you can’t make it to Saturday Market.

Lots of tourists visit the market, so it’s important to engage them once they’ve gone home rather than limiting your market reach to “people in downtown Portland on any random Saturday”.

None of the businesses we bought items from asked for contact information so that they could keep us informed about new products and the like.  No question, it would have to be asked in the right way given people’s dislike of spam but that CAN be done.

A motel in Eastern Oregon once asked me, “Can I get your email address so that we can contact you if you leave an item in your room?” Who *hasn’t* left something in a hotel room? It strikes dead center on the “well, of course, I don’t want to lose my stuff” nerve. Simple and smart.

Purrrrr

There was a bright spot at the market in addition to some really great art and hand-made products: the booth for “The Spoiled Cat”, where a woman and her daughter were selling catnip pillows,

The sides and back wall of her booth were plastered with laminated 8″ x 10″ photos that her customers had sent in. Each photo was of a cat mauling, loving, hugging and/or generally having a ball jonesing on their catnip pillows.

Some of the photos were hilarious. That booth stood out to anyone in her target market – cat owners and friends/family of cat owners.

Exactly what it should have done.

Is that what your booth does?

photo credit: mackarus

You may have seen those odd-looking square barcodes in newspapers and magazines, on product boxes, etc.

You might even have noticed them in the middle of the star-shaped signage in some Macy’s television commercials.

They’re called “QR codes“.

Why should business owners should care about them?

A smartphone can scan/read a QR code, which will take it to a specific web site address (URL).

Why use them at all? Who really cares about yet another barcode?

Your prospects and customers do. Some of your websites make it really hard to buy.

For prospects and customers using smartphones, it can be particularly annoying. But your customers don’t use smartphones, right?

Let’s talk about that. Currently, Nielsen (yes, those TV ratings people count other things too) says 40% of U.S. cell phone users use a smartphone.

A web search will tell you that there are 327 million active mobile subscriptions in the U.S. Yes, that’s more mobile subscriptions than there are adults, per the 2010 census. The numbers get a little whacked partly because of the number of people with a personal account/cellphone and a business one (provided to them or otherwise).

327 million is a fairly big number. Too big, maybe. To get a better handle on the numbers, a glance at a 2009 CTIA (wireless telecom industry group) survey of their members report indicated that 257 million Americans have data-capable devices and about half of those are phones. The rest are laptops and tablets. So we’ve reduced the number to roughly half the population, which is close to the Nielsen number.

Again, that’s a end-of-2009 number….BEFORE the availability of iPhone4 (and 4S), iPad and other modern-ish tablets.

Seems to me a number that’s even 10 million smartphones too big would be enough to provoke interest in the experience mobile/smartphone website users have at your site.

So now that you have big scary (or exciting) numbers to think about – particularly if your business deals in retail, tourism and other core business-to-consumer fields – get back to solving “we make it hard to buy” problem.

Important safety tip about using QR codes

Never (yes, never) use your home page URL as the destination.

Reason #1 – QR code users are, by definition, mobile users. Presumably you have a URL that is designed to be used by mobile browser users so they don’t spend all of their time squinting, pinching and spreading (or pressing zoom buttons) to read about your cool new product. If your site automatically senses mobile browsers and changes behavior or reroutes them to pages designed for mobile users, all the better.

Reason #2 – Sending them directly to your home page can make it far more difficult to measure inbound visitor numbers.

Why is that important? Because you want to know how your QR code links are performing by media/by ad/by publication etc. If you have them going to different URLs (web site addresses) such as MyReallyCoolsite.com/QR1 and MyReallycoolsite.com/QR2, then you can figure out their individual performance.

If QR code A works better than QR code B, you have information about the effectiveness of the media, placement and other characteristics of the location of that code. You can eliminate this reason by including QR code specific analytics codes (Google Analytics, et al) in your URLs, but that doesn’t eliminate the most important reason…

Reason #3 – Why did they scan (and hopefully share) that QR code/URL? Because they wanted something specific that they were looking at RIGHT THEN. If I’m looking at a Corvette ad in an in-flight magazine, do I want to go to Chevy.com or do I want to go to the page that describes the smokin’ Vette I’m looking at?

The primary reason to use them

Consider how annoying it is to navigate not-so-mobile friendly sites on a smartphone. Make yours the friendly, easy site for mobile users.

Make your customers’ life easier. Make it easier for them to visit your site, visit the right page and share something about your business that they want to share.

Ask anyone in the publishing business about pass-along numbers. They’re important to readership, so much so that they claim pass-along readership as an asset to advertisers.

Transfer that thought to your website, catalog, ads, trade show materials, demo products and other materials. Do they need a QR code so that people can view/share them easily?

In many cases, I think so.

photo credit: kelp1966

One of the things you have to be careful about is making your business too generic.

The conversation…

Them: Could I get you to comment on a booth graphic for my company?  We are pretty simple here and need a banner for a trade show booth. Wondering if the fonts are ‘old’.

Them: (Sends booth graphic, which says the company name, what they do and “Manufactured in Montana USA”)

Me:  The “Manufactured in Montana USA” line should stay no matter what else you do. It’s fascinating how much “Manufactured in Montana USA” improves response vs. “Made in Montana”.

Lesson: Test *everything*.

Me:  This banner tells what you do but it doesn’t say why I should talk to you instead of everyone else who does what you do. What separates you from the others who do what you do?

Them:  We have a large variety of in stock materials, very fast turnaround on materials and parts,  specialize in small run orders.

Me:  Probably too much to put on a banner. Is small run unusual in your business?

Them:  It is in our particular niche.  It separates us from a couple of bigger competitors.  They refer to us when someone wants a small quantity.

Them: It’s also an attraction for the government contracted items as they will only need 32 of something so a lot of competitors won’t take the work.

Lesson: Know what makes you special.

Me: Think about these:

“We specialize in small run orders” vs “We specialize in small run orders. We’ll make 32 of them, if that’s what you need.” (Specific vs. generic)

“Very fast turnaround” vs “Three day turnaround” (“Very fast” has many meanings. What does it mean to you?)

“We stock 1000 square feet of 214 different materials so we can get your order out quickly without material delivery delays” vs “large variety of in-stock materials”.

Me:  Being specific (such as “three day”) provokes them to ask someone else exactly what their turnaround is (for example), without you saying a word about your competitor.

Them:  We’d be on the offensive for once!   This sales stuff is not in our DNA (it was the grandfather’s gift, no one since then)

Me:  Is he the business’ namesake? If so,  I’d be tempted to incorporate a good head shot photo of him (in context of the business) into your signage but thatll greatly change the banner price if the timing and cost make sense.

Them:  Interesting .. to make it more personal?

Me:  Exactly.

Me:  I do have another suggestion for a change for the banner. If you only want to buy it once… “Since 1961″

Me:  If you want to buy the banner more than once, this is the year to say “Fifty years…” or “Our 50th year” etc.

Lesson: State your strengths in strong specifics, no matter how obvious.

Me:  Since its a family affair, you may want to work in “Three generations” and a progression of pics of you, dad, grandpa.

Them:  That’s a really great idea.  Helps with that story you want people to get into.

Me:  Exactly. The question everyone enjoys answering: “So, how’d you get into this business?”

Lesson: Business is Personal.

Me:  Do you guys have booth giveaways?

Them:  Notepads was the plan. We are working up materials and sample parts to display on our table.   Stuff to show off our capabilities.

Me: How do notepads provoke people to think about your product? Alternative: What would it cost to make a 4″ rounds of a mildly heat resistant and hopefully liquid resistant material you use in production?

Them: I think we could make that happen.

Me:  I’m thinking coasters with your company/logo/URL/phone # embossed on them. Put your work in front of them all day, every day. A notepad will get left on a plane or in a hotel room. These won’t be.

Them: We would have to figure out a way to put the printing on there but its a great idea.

Me:  I figured you might have a means of embossing, but I wasn’t sure.

Them:  We are a crafty bunch so now that you’ve given me the idea…

Them:  I really appreciate the help.   This is a new world to me.

Lesson: Use congruent tools to get them thinking and talking about you.

photo credit: ruurmo

If your software business was “perfect”, what would it look like?

What do I mean? Here are a few ideas to get you started…

• What’s your product line look like?
• What services do you offer?
• How big (or little) is your staff?
• What benefits do you offer?
• How much vacation do you enjoy per year?
• What would your customers say about your company?
• How many customers would you have?
• What trade shows do you exhibit at?
• What’s your position in the market?
• What would happen when a support call came in?
• What would happen when a bug was found?

Not in the software business? So what. Replace “software business” with whatever you do. Alter the question list to fit your business.

You might be thinking none of this could ever happen.

Or you could start with your answers and work backwards to figure out what it will take to get there. Take one step, then another.

If you don’t ask yourself the hard questions…who will?

PS: Are you really in the <whatever> business? A drill bit manufacturer doesn’t sell drill bits. Ultimately, they sell holes. A coffee shop sells comfort, even to take out customers. What do you really sell?

photo credit: nandadevieast

One of the things I help business owners understand is how to tell their story (and why they should bother).

Sometimes, business owners don’t have a story, or at least, they think they don’t. Yet when you ask them, it’s a rare person who doesn’t have a tale that answers “How’d you get into this business?”

Many times, the work people do is a means to an end, or at least it seems that way on the surface because they just haven’t thought about it as their story.

Sometimes they got there by happenstance or by being in the right place at the right time. A family tradition leads others into a line of work after a parent sells or leaves them a business they didn’t even consider being in. Some folks “grow up” in the business and follow in their parents’ footsteps – even if that requires years of college.

For others, a business might have come out of something they’d done forever and decided to turn that activity into their way of making a living – say, a serious fly fisher starting a fly shop or a fishing guide service business.

More often than not the story is rooted in their passion for the work, for solving the problem their business solves, or the people they work with while doing so.

Your story is what sets the stage for a well-worn quote: “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.“  (Attributed to everyone from FDR to a soccer coach from UNC to John Maxwell)

It does that because how you got to where you are today says a lot of about the “how much you care” thing.

But sometimes, the answer isn’t so exciting. Or so it seems.

At Our Company, we strive to stay current with the latest products and techniques. We consider ourselves experts in our field and we invite you to take advantage of our expertise so that you can be assured to have the equipment, accessories and service that meets your needs.

Please take a look around our website. You’ll find information about the comprehensive line of cycling products and services we offer to maximize the fun factor in your outdoor activities. And be sure to check out our Resources & Links page where you can access all sorts of valuable information for cycling enthusiasts.

Stop by and visit us at Our Company … we’d love to get to know you better.

Check out Our Company online and add your ‘Like’ on facebook.com/ourcompany

Only 2 things in all of that give you any idea what they do: “cycling” and “outdoor activities”.

Why you?

I can buy cycling gear in a lot of places, including WalMart and Amazon.

I buy it from locally-owned stores for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that I want access to someone who can do more than just hand me the bag with my stuff in it. I want access to an expert who will base their answers to my newbie questions on their 27,438 miles of riding.

I have a lot of wants, just like people who play Warcraft, brew their own beer, restore mid-1950 Chevys or manicure Bonsai trees.

People who do those things don’t want to buy stuff from someone who doesn’t know anything about those things – and they sure don’t want to buy them from someone who doesn’t care about those things.

Something like this (which I just tossed together) tells people why you care:

We’re cyclists. The finest moments of our lives are memories of eating dust on single tracks only we and the bears know about, getting air at BMX events, leading the Tour de Hometown (even if only for a moment), riding in the kiddie seat on the back of our parents’ bikes during a trip to France and sharing the same memory with our kids right here at home.

Every bike, component, accessory gear and clothing in our shop is tested and personally approved by our staff. We don’t just hire salespeople or mechanics. We hire cyclists. We know you want help from someone who’s been where you’re going – or wants to ride along.

When we aren’t on our bikes, we love to use our combined 74 years of road racing, BMX, trail riding and cross-country touring experience to help you get the most out of your ride. We can’t wait to meet you and talk bikes.

If they know your story, they’ll know why you care.

photo credit: notsogoodphotography

If you subscribe to my email newsletter, you know that I close most of the emails with “Do at least one thing today to get, or keep, a client.”

It’s as simple as it sounds…but do you do it?

Even if you can only spare 15 minutes, spend it every day doing something that attracts new clients or helps you keep the ones you have.

Here are a few ideas that can be accomplished in only a few minutes.

You could…

• Write a blog post
• Add another 200 words to your upcoming book
• Review recent contact logs for ideas, potential problems or training needs.
• Record a podcast
• Design a new loyalty program or fix something about the one you have.
• Ask someone who has never seen your website to let you watch while they try to use your website.
• Ask one of your customers what they most value about what your company does.
• Call a prospect who didn’t buy and ask them what turned them off to your company. Write them a thank you note (NOT AN EMAIL) afterward.
• Follow up the “what turned you off” call with a “here’s what we did to fix that” postcard (postcards get seen)
• Take the answer from the prior question and compare it to yours. Take action on your conclusion.
• Create a new product or service
• Write a thank you note to a new (or existing) customer.
• Tweet about your favorite new product, customer, employee, industry discovery
• Modify an existing product or service to make it easier to use.
• Pick one thing off your customers’ pet peeve list and fix it.
• Call one customer and talk to them about their experiences with your products, company, staff.
• Call one customer and ask them what your company could do that would most impact their use of your products/services.
• Call one customer and ask them what keeps them up at night, future-wise.
• Call one customer and ask them what keeps them up at night, problem-wise.
• Call one customer and talk to them about their next-big-thing.
• Spend 15 minutes thinking about your next-big-thing (and take notes). Do so in a way and place that there is no way you can be interrupted during this effort.
• Ask one staff member what you could do to help them be more productive.
• Ask one staff member what they would fix first.
• Ask one staff member about their vision for the company and its customers.
• Ask your staff which meeting or other regular activity they find a complete waste of time – and what they would do instead.
• Review your contact logs (or ask the staffer who is the first point of contact) to find out what’s on the mind of your customers these days.
• Make a video showing off one of your product features that more people should use.

Those are just a few ideas. What would you add?

Jump in!

UPDATE:

.@MarkRiffey I expect a hand-calligraphed postcard from a woman in a beehive hairdo confirming that I'm off the list.

August 25, 2011 8:46 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@JustinKownacki

Justin Kownacki

That’s Justin’s tongue-in-cheek comment on what he wanted to happen after unsubscribing from a vendor’s email list today – only to find out it would take 10 days for the unsubscribe to occur. Sarcasm aside, that’s a personal touch not unlike the list above refers to…

Puit d’Amour from St. Honoré Boulangerie

This past week, I had the pleasure of visiting the still somewhat chilly seaside of Oregon thanks to a handful of out of town appointments.

In between the productive parts of the week, we managed to visit a couple of western Oregon wineries.

While a good time was had by all, I found it interesting how different each winery’s tasting room experience was designed to sell.

The Fancy One

This winery, created originally as a farm by a Montanan from Butte, was a bit upscale, sizable and very clean. It was a long-established place, noting that “long established” means “since 1980 or so”.

They’re that new because ash from Mount St. Helens’ eruption killed most crops in the area, changing the soil for decades to come.

The room said “old money” (dark, massive woods). While there were a few sweatshirts available, the retail portion of the room was all about the wine. Lots of it. Information from two inconsistently dressed but very sharp wine servers was on target, friendly and as detailed as you wanted. They clearly loved talking wine.

The Spartan One

This tasting room had a simple, fuss-free entry off of their gravel parking lot behind the wine production area. There’s a bar, a few barstools and an area clearly used for packing shipments. All in the tasting room. The lone wine steward was reasonably well-educated about the wine but didn’t really provoke the conversation.

The Homey One

This one was very new, expecting to bottle their own wine from their own grapes for the very first time this year. Previously, they’ve made wine using grapes from nearby vineyards.

The tasting room was homey, if not a bit cluttered with every wine accessory and kitsch you could think of. A yellow lab was chilled out on the floor. A guitarist was just outside the tasting room’s open door, playing in shaded patio seating area. Unfortunately the wine at this place wasn’t very good. The staff was right at home, downright friendly and maybe even too at home if that’s possible.

The Experienced One

This winery was almost 20 years old. Their marketing materials (online) referenced comments by a well-known reviewer. The tasting room was small, uncluttered and while it had wine accessories, they include only those focused on a better wine experience (vs. coasters and talking corkscrews).

Staff was knowledgeable and friendly in an average sort of way. Nothing bad, but nothing outstanding.

What struck me

While we didn’t visit all of the wineries (there are quite a few), the ones we did visit took very different approaches to their goal – presumably that of selling wine.

In every tasting room, there was little to take home other than wine that would bring you back to them to buy more. Few items had a website address on them – at least those that you could take with you.

No one asked us for contact information, not even those who sold us a bottle of wine.

In some cases, there were Oregon wine country brochures and/or county-specific winery marketing association brochures, rather than winery-specific info.

Every winery but the “Fancy One” was out of “wine menus”. These are descriptive sheets about each of their wines that left you room to take notes and perhaps note which one you prefer over another and why. In two different places, the only one they had was leftover from a Memorial Day special event – in both situations, it was the last one they had.

Why is this important?

How will they choose?

Out of the 40+ wineries in that Oregon county, during our visit they often have but ONE chance to get a visitor to fall in love with their place, their wine, their mystique, and the grapes that only they know how to nurture.

These small facilities (small in the wine world) sell at most one wine in retail locations. Some sell only at the winery. That’s right – they have no retail presence.

Ordinarily, you’d want these visitors to ask their local store for your wine, but they often can’t. Their small production (number of cases produced annually) prevents widespread distribution. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you’ve got to get them loving your stuff quickly in that situation.

Think about trying to penetrate (much less stand out in) mainstream retail wine shelf space the next time you walk into a grocery that carries wine (or a wine center store). It’s like looking at the salad dressing bottle shelves at WalMart. Your eyes glaze over at all the choices.

When the mind is presented with a zillion choices, one of two things tends to happen. People take the default choice (Gallo?, Wishbone?) or they make no choice at all. Next time you’re in your local grocery, watch people look at the wine shelves. They’ll look and look and in many cases, they’ll give up and take a Gallo (or whatever they saw on TV recently, or whatever is on sale).

Why? Because no one stands out in that environment. That’s why you see more and more outlandish labels and wine names. They know their bottles are on a shelf with 200 others so they’ll do A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G to catch your eye.

What do you want me to do next?

Knowing that the competition (where you might not be stocked) often caters to “How much?”, why wouldn’t you try to hook folks while they’re in your tasting room? It’s the best possible situation for the winery. They can’t grab a Gallo. They can shop by price, but they still get to taste before they buy. They have experts to help them choose what fits their taste buds and their budget.

There’s something else critical about that the tasting room visitor: She walks in the front door with a sign over her head that says “I like wine and I’m willing to drive all the way here to try YOURS.”  Think about how often you get the opportunity to make a first impression on someone who has tipped their hand that strongly.

What does the winery want them to do next? Beyond taking home a case (or even a single bottle), they want these visitors to go home and order more of their wines online (if they can). They want them to ask their local store to stock or custom order them. They want their visitors want them to go to the DailyGrape and watch Gary‘s reviews of their wines and then order from him.

If that’s what you want them to do, you have to make it easy.

And now, it’s your turn.

Now…think about the “browsers” who enter your business. Think about the first time buyers and, where appropriate, the tourists who enter your business.

How do you “stick” in their minds? How do you help them return, even if all they can do is return to your website?

Wineries have to deal with customers in states (like Montana) who cannot (easily) have wine shipped to them due to arcane laws put in place (and kept there) by fear-driven trade associations.

In one way or another, we all have situations like that, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take every step possible to make it easy to buy. How are you making it “easy to buy” even for your customers who have to exert effort to do so?

Let’s simplify that a bit: How are you making your stuff easy to buy?

What do you want them (your visitors) to do next?

photo credit: bjaglin

A few days ago, Seth Godin asked why ethical marketers wouldn’t be “eager to have aggressive, clear and well-defined regulations” (about marketing).

He set the context by talking about the lies used to sell sunscreen, noting that lobbyists kindly helped the FDA water down proposed sunscreen regulations.

To quote Seth:

Why aren’t ethical marketers (of any product) eager to have clear and well-defined regulations, creating a set of honest definitions so that they can actually do what they set out to do–make a difference and make a living at the same time? If you’re busy competing against people willing to cut corners, I’d think you’d want the rules to be really aggressive, clear and obvious.

Yes, clear and obvious regulations would be great, but the assertion that we need more regulations to deal with them requires that I call BullSeth.

Enforcement and Influence

The enforcement of existing regulations in a fair and consistent manner is the primary issue.

Selective enforcement of these regulations is sometimes used to send a political message to some industries while others are left to their own honor or lack thereof.

At times, the agencies responsible for enforcement find themselves taking direction from elected officials who often take direction in the form of campaign contributions. At other times, these agencies do whatever they like, regardless of regulatory boundaries created to manage their work.

Before the everything-is-one-party’s-fault types weigh in, keep in mind that this ISN’T a (R) problem or a (D) problem. It’s universal regardless of the animal you represent.

A healthy business / consumer / economic environment doesn’t require oppressive business marketing/advertising regulations like Germany’s, we need those who represent us to use the existing regulations in a fair and consistent manner AND continue to improve them.

Smart businesses can’t sit around and wait for that to happen.

Don’t Wait, Educate.

Waiting for these changes isn’t going to cut it. Smart businesses educate prospects and customers about the quality choices they have.

That doesn’t mean your marketing has to be boring (far from it). It doesn’t mean your marketing can’t be compelling, entertaining, motivational and most importantly, effective – but it can be all those things without breaking existing laws, much less new ones.

In the meantime, we have to do our part to eliminate the slimeballs. Yes, I absolutely mean put them out of business, even if it means a game of Whack-a-Mole as they close one and start another.

Ethical business people don’t do enough to call out the slimy behavior of their competitors. Neither do consumers.

Buy Better

Meanwhile, people continue to take it from the cretins Seth referred to, rewarding these “businesses” for their behavior.

If folks keep buying from them and media outlets keep accepting their advertising, do you really think they are going to change?

Have you ever contacted a media outlet about the advertising they accepted from vendors advertising one thing and delivering another? Sure, it’s your word against the vendor’s. And yes, the media outlet will likely claim they have no responsibility for what appears in their paper, on their station or on their website.

I think you’re smarter than that.

The power of the customer to deal with these vendors comes simply: STOP BUYING FROM THESE IDIOTS.

It’s Just Word of Mouth

Businesses can help them do that.

Customers have lots of resources that enable them to take control, including Yelp, Urbanspoon, Angie’s List, Trip Advisor, etc. These services help people find businesses that deliver what they say and avoid the ones who don’t.

In a perfect world, we shouldn’t need any of them. Until we get there, we all have to help each other by calling BS when it’s warranted and giving kudos as well.

Too few businesses pay attention to those services. If you think no one is using them to make daily purchasing choices in your little town, you’re dead wrong – particularly if your area is frequented by tourists. You need to be monitoring them, addressing issues, “claiming” your business so people can find you, and encouraging consumers to share their thoughts there.

Encourage your customers to use tools that help them buy better. Provide them when you can. Help them stop buying from the wrong people.

Unlike Farmers Insurance, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) hasn’t really ever come off as an organization with a sense of humor, no matter how funny some of their members might be.

While golf is full of decades-old (if not centuries-old) tradition and is traditionally thought of as a game for the well-heeled, it’s really about spending time with your friends, even when you’re playing a course that would make a good cow pasture.

Friends who golf aren’t just mostly-white, stodgy old geezers in funny-looking polyester pants.

The boy band may not have this on their agenda, I have to ask: What have you done to reach out beyond your traditional market?

PS: Farmers Insurance is donating $1000 to charity for every 100,000 views of this video.

photo credit: Rob Gallop

Earlier this week, I wrote about breaking down Chet Holmes’ “Dream 100″ list of prospective customers into 10 lists of 10.

What I didn’t tell you was why I break the list down.

Asking you to name 100 random prospects would like result in an impact focused on one thing – “just the sales”.

This set of lists takes you well beyond that. Instead of having to think of 100 ideal prospects, you have only 10 of a specific type to come up with and each one has a context.

More importantly, each of the 10 groups has a specific purpose.

• The 10 testimonial prospects need to be well-known in your market. Influencers. People or companies that, when mentioned, make people think your company hits home runs.
• 10 CEOs you’d learn the most from – Obvious. Good to have their business, but great to have them, effectively, as business partners.
• The 10 biggest upsides will make great turnaround / rags-to-riches stories. Powerful stuff.
• The 10 clients to test your strengths are there because your strengths needed to be pushed – they ARE your strengths, after all.
• The clients to expose your company’s weaknesses are there because you need to be reminded of them and decide whether to let them be or eliminate them.
• Clients with a demanding nature are there to make your team better. Like your strengths, they too need to be pushed.
• The transformational wave of revenue is going to be needed if you get these other things right – because a lot of change is going to come one way or another.
• The 10 clients who need what you don’t have really need YOU. The fact that you don’t yet offer what they need will force you to stretch in your market.
• The 10 clients who wouldn’t likely survive without your help are there for several reasons. They’ll remind you of the small fry you might be ignoring. Maybe they shouldn’t survive without your help. What will you learn from that process?
• The 10 clients who would make you wake up in the middle of the night and think to yourself “I can’t believe I got those guys” are there for all the above reasons. They’ll push most of the buttons the other 90 clients will push – but in different ways.

The real reason that last category is there is to push you and your business well beyond your current boundaries as you see them.

You need to be pushed. You need to realize that you have another level inside your business that you’ve yet to discover.

PS: Getting these 100 clients will establish you as the leader in your market. Other prospects will notice you success, notice who they are and notice what you did to get them. And they’ll want some of that. Which is why you needed to be pushed.

photo credit: kaibara87

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler

Are you doing the same things in the same ways that you did when *everything* worked?

If so, is that still working for you? If it is, great.

If it isn’t, you can be stubborn and wait out the marketplace to see if things come back to those Business-Can-Do-No-Wrong days of the “mid-noughts”.

You could also be stubborn and blame the whole thing on your state government and/or Washington. If you do, I’ve no doubt that you also gave them full credit for the unbridled business growth you had in 2005-2007.

Or, you could take things into your own hands to the extent that you can.

In Your Hands

For example, if you run a medical facility like an eye clinic or a dental office whose lower tier/checkup services are paid for via insurance and you have patients whose records indicate their services are insured, do you send them a reminder postcard on the anniversary of their last insured service?

I’ll bet many of you do. The postcard probably says something like “Your annual appointment is due. Call us.”

How’s the response to that postcard?

If it isn’t so hot, have you tried different cards to different people?

Don’t feel bad if you do. Learn, unlearn, relearn – remember?

Message to market match

If you send different cards to different demographic groups (such as single, male, female, married, older, younger, etc), you’re doing what direct marketers call “message to market match”.

Direct marketing folks gave it a name for a reason – it’s substantially more effective than “mail everyone on the planet the exact same postcard”.

That means that your message to a particular group of people is customized for them. Their needs. Their wants. Their view of the world, generally speaking.

Do you send the same card to single men, single women, married couples in their 30s, retired couples, “middle aged” couples with kids, single moms, etc?

A single man might see a “Time for your annual appointment” card with a couple of kids and a dog on it and just pitch it.

Likewise, a married couple in their thirties might see a card with a white-haired couple on it and do the same.

Return on Investment

You might wonder if this is worth the effort.

Here’s how you can test it without spending a ton of money.

Go back and look at last month’s (or last quarter’s) postcard mailings. I’m assuming you can figure out who you mailed since you mailed them in the first place.

The next time you mail that group of people, send half of the female clients a postcard that is designed for a woman.

You can decide what that means in your market, but I don’t mean “Just make it pink with flowers.”

Send the other half of the women your standard card.

Measure the performance of each card.

Over time, continue to do any of those things that produce a better response than what you were used to. As response and ROI improves, keep testing two versions of your cards and see how they work.

The one that’s currently producing the best results is called the “control”.  Keep trying to beat it.

This strategy can be applied to your phone scripts, your emails, your Facebook page, your tweets on Twitter, your Yellow Pages ad, your newspaper / radio / TV ads and so on.

Insurance-paid services aren’t a requirement to do this sort of thing. I’ve yet to see a business that can’t benefit from this and do so without being annoying to their clientele.

Make it happen

I don’t remember who originally said this, but someone once said “There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.”

Relearning how to make the phone ring is no one’s responsibility but yours. I think that’s a good thing.

Be the one who makes things happen. It has a way of keeping you from being the one who wonders what happened.

photo credit: Philgarlic

Today’s guest post is a little unusual: It’s a page in the Amazon book store.

What originally drew me to it was the name. It appeared in the “people also bought” list when I was checking out another book.

The game in the book write up is something worth playing. It’s a discussion worth having with yourself or your staff about why and how you sell what you sell.

Does everyone really get it? This game will help – even if no one does.

Check out the Gamestorming book page.

photo credit: aloshbennett

Yesterday, I was reading a comment from Bobby Rich about this small business (whaaaaa?) post on Hildy’s blog.

Bobby took Hildy’s idea, smooshed it around a little and decided to see if it would work for his business.

I like the idea, but I think we can put a cherry on top of that smooshed idea.

No doubt, it’s a nice giveback to the community to promote these local businesses.

In partnership with the local Chamber of Commerce, regional marketing co-op, etc; it might also be a way to promote that group and its members, introduce new members’ businesses, and maybe urge new businesses to join that group.

Even better for Bobby, I’m thinking it’d be a simple way to demonstrate to a small business owner how well radio/tv ads for that business would work on his stations, particularly the small local businesses who might not even consider advertising on radio/tv.

Imagine the reaction of a small business owner who previously balked at the investment of a radio ad, only to find that a free ad ended up generating 100 new customers in a few week’s time – especially if the ad was designed to make the results obvious and trackable to the ad.

Kinda makes a guy wonder…

photo credit: psyberartist

Drive around long enough and you’ll see a billboard that says “If you’re looking, it’s working”.

I see the same slogan on electronic advertising displays, which can be found everywhere from restaurant restrooms and gyms to billboards.

Is it “working” when you accidentally glance at the back of a plumber’s pants when he’s on his knees with his head buried under your sink? Or when you stare at an auto accident?

A definition

“My ad is working” means “people take action as a result of the ad”. It does not mean “someone with a heartbeat saw the ad”.

“Working” doesn’t always equal spending money, but it does always mean taking action.

After you glance over at that auto accident, if you put on your seat belt…. that’s action. Cause and effect. Taking action.

That’s what “working” means when it comes to an ad.

“But, you can’t track billboard response”

Yes, you can.

I’ve yet to see a media whose usage cannot be tracked.

To be sure, you can’t track how many people read your ad on a billboard or in the newspaper, though you can estimate numbers based on drive-by traffic statistics published by governmental agencies (for billboards) and subscription + newsstand buys + online page views (for newspapers).

The number *reading* your ad isn’t the important number. Sure, if you have a general consumer product, you want to tell as many people as you can, but you don’t go to the bank with “eyeballs”, page views, newsstand copies or cars-per-day.

You go with sales revenue.

What you really want to be paying attention to is how many people took action as a result of your ad, no matter where it is.

You can absolutely track what happens if readers take action, but many businesses don’t. As a result, they’re operating on gut feel, guesswork or a seat of the pants idea of what their ads are doing.

Look at the advertising you’re doing. Are you tracking any of it? If not, how do you know which ads work and which don’t? How do you know which media work (for you) and which don’t? (or don’t work as well)

Just because an ad or media is “free” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be tracking results.

Start tracking and you’ll start knowing what’s working and what isn’t.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

Today’s guest post is for those business owners arriving late at the “social media party”.

For those making an entrance, business-wise, here’s a nice social media startup guide from the NYTimes’ “You’re The Boss” blog.

It talks about restaurants specifically, but the advice is sound regardless of what your business does.

As usual, salt to taste.

Bill Glazer’s favorite question when grilling someone is “What’s next?”

The answer to that can be found below.

Contact me if you’d like to be a pre-release tester for one or more of them.

• A product for QuickBooks automation that will be of interest to business owners who use direct marketing, Dan Kennedy fans and Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle members.
• Practicum Office – See PracticumOffice.com
• A new self-guided 30 day workshop for software business owners who want to turnaround their business or take it to the next level.

photo credit: sarahsampsel

In the process of elliptical-ing across some wide open (virtual) spaces recently, I thought to myself, “What would I change if I owned this place?”

I might warm up the pool a couple of degrees, but that really isn’t the kind of change I meant.

The things that came to mind were in the spirit of “Be indispensable“.

So what would make that place the ONLY place to be a member?

When I have these conversations with a client, the first thing we often talk about are their clients.

We start simple. Who are they? What do they need?

A Day in the Life

To answer the “Who are they?” question, let’s look around at a day in the life of a fitness center and see how we can segment the members (customers) into groups based on gender, age, level of fitness, “Why they are there”, and so on.

I don’t mean a group like “People who need/want to work out.” Obviously, most people who join qualify for either need to or want to.

I’m thinking about a list like this, and I’m sure it’s far from complete:

• Professional or semi-pro athletes, such as people who regularly marathon, triathlon and/or Ironman. You might include players for the local semi-pro teams. Around here, the Glacier Twins and/or Glacier Knights would be included.
• Bodybuilders.
• Post-partum moms who want to get their “pre-pregnancy body” back.
• Pregnant women.
• Men recovering from heart surgery.
• Anyone newly diagnosed with diabetes.
• People who are new to working out.
• “Formerly disciplined workout people” who haven’t worked out in five, ten or more years.
• People recovering from an injury, possibly under the direction of a physical therapist.

Within these groups, you’ll find breakdowns for gender and/or age group. Don’t underestimate those.

Everyone should be considering the sizable wave of Baby Boomers heading into their 60s-70s-80s might impact their business and what opportunities they suggest. Likewise, research has repeatedly shown that women control or influence 80% or more of household spending.

Is your business catering to these groups? If not, is your business even passingly friendly to these groups?

I Have Needs

The second question on my list was “What do they need?”

Until you create the list above, your needs list might be simpler than it should be because you might just be thinking “What do my members need?”.

Once we’ve gone through the customer (and prospect) identification and segmentation process, we’ll find more needs.

That’s why we go through this probably tedious, sometimes eye-rolling process that almost always helps you find new things that your customers need. The result should be obvious.

What do they need?

Now look back at that list of customer types from a “wants and needs” perspective. Consider the needs of body builders, post-partum moms, heart patients, and semi-pro athletes, for example. In some ways, they’re similar. In others, they have wildly different expectations.

They all need machines/weights, steam room, hot tub, pool, showers, restrooms and so on.

After that, the needs among the groups vary quite a bit:

• Some would benefit most from instruction and/or working in groups.
• Some prefer private facilities.
• Some prefer gender-specific workout times/rooms.
• Some prefer age-specific.
• Some work evening or night shift.
• Some would prefer to find a workout partner for motivation, spotting weights and/or accountability.
• Some would like to be gently nagged if they don’t show up 3 times a week.

One example of many obvious ones: You wouldn’t necessarily have 20-somethings in a Yoga class with 60-somethings. Not because they can’t enjoy each other’s company, but because the instruction and goals for one group probably don’t parallel the other. That might drive you to have separate Yoga classes for singles, post-partums, “retirees”, physical therapy patients and so on. In each case, the instructor could be matched with attendees.

“What about me?”

If you don’t own a fitness center, you might be thinking this discussion isn’t much help.

Use what you can after adjusting it for your business. Can you take any idea here and make it work for you?

Finally, take a hard look at the thought process itself (“Who are my customers, what are their unique needs”) and see what you can come up with for your business. Even if you’ve done this five, ten or fifteen years back, I suggest doing it again. You might find yourself in new markets, focusing on a particular type of customer that you’d previously ignored, etc.

If this commercial started selling what they sell the way everyone else sells it, you would have closed your browser in seconds.

Yet I’ll bet you watched the entire clip.

If Lurpak can make a commercial this compelling about their product, you can too. What can you do to tell your product’s story equally well?

Thanks to @jslarve for the tip.

photo credit: gagilas

Yesterday, an email from WinZip arrived in my inbox.

I’ve used and liked WinZip for at least a decade. Not many pieces of software can make that claim.

Lately, they’ve been emailing me pretty frequently. This particular email offered a free copy of the latest WinZip if I used their affiliate link to sign up for a free trial with Netflix’s online movie service.

Whaaaa?

Ok, maybe that’s not such a bad deal if I’m not already a Netflix user, but the offer may not make sense depending on what kind of WinZip customer I am.

When I got the email, I wondered “Why Netflix?”

It might make perfect sense if WinZip knows their customer base well. Perhaps they’re sure that a majority of their users are home users, student/teacher users or small business/corporate users. If that were so, it would’ve been best to segment their email list and mail this offer only to their home users. And perhaps I’m somehow on that home list, rather than on their “business customer” list.

Even if all that is true, is this a service that most WinZip users can take advantage of? Does it help their users get more out of their WinZip? Or did they send it because Netflix is a really good affiliate deal for the makers of WinZip?

The offer just doesn’t make sense from a “How can we help you get more out of our software?” perspective – something you should *always* be thinking about, whether you sell software or transmission oil coolers.

In fact, some will see that message – especially at multi-per-week frequencies – as spam.

I’m not convinced that WinZip segmented their email list before sending this out. If they had, it might make sense.

Leverage

In your case, it’s essential to avoid being “one of those people” and eventually ending up on a spam blacklist.

If you’re going to send 3rd party offers to your customers, make absolutely sure they make sense by giving your customer an opportunity to leverage the investment they’ve already made in your products and services.

Whaaaa? Part 2

When you build a commodity (mostly) utility, even one as good as WinZip as been, at some point your business model is going to flatten out. With no recurring revenue, you start doing things like emailing your customers offers to purchase a movie service. Even your business customers.

Think deep and long about that business model. What happens after 100 customers? What happens after 500 or 50,000? What happens 10 years from now?

The more thought you invest in that stuff now, even while building the next-big-thing, the less likely you’ll need to make choices that would never cross your mind otherwise.