photo credit: VinothChandar

Business adviser and author Chet Holmes uses a strategy called “The Dream 100″ to identify the 100 prospects he would most like to obtain as clients. He then puts strategies and actions into place to do so.

Think about your market. It might be tough to come up with 100 “best” clients you’d like to have, but it’s easy to think of 10 when you categorize them differently.

Your list might look something like this:

• List the 10 clients you’d most like to have a testimonial from.
• List the 10 clients whose CEOs you would learn the most from.
• List the 10 clients who, after using your products/services, would have the biggest “upside”.
• List the 10 clients who would test your company’s strengths.
• List the 10 clients who would expose your company’s weaknesses.
• List the 10 clients whose demanding nature would will your company to step up their game.
• List the 10 clients who, as a group, would produce a wave of revenue that would transform your business.
• List the 10 clients who need products and services you don’t yet offer, but need to.
• List the 10 clients who wouldn’t likely survive without your help.
• List 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.”

Now…go get ‘em!

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.

photo credit: Anonymous Account

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that there were some “numbers you might care about“.

Examples we talked about included figuring out the costs to obtain both a new prospect/lead and a new customer.

In prior discussions, I’ve also suggested that you need to be thanking your customers, following up with them, tracking referrals that customers (and others) make, checking to see that more time than usual hasn’t passed since their last purchase, and so on.

And then…I get emails.

Many of them tell me I’m nuts because no one has time to do all that and that I must be making it up. Others get it and they ask HOW to get all that stuff done.

GETTING STUFF DONE

Here’s part one of a primer on getting this stuff done.

What I mean by “primer” is that it’s simple and you don’t have to buy anything fancy or expensive, nor do you need to do anything geeky. You *can*, of course, but it’s not a requirement.

Start with these tools:

• A free calendar (banks, insurance agents and others hand them out all the time). A large one-month-per-page desk calendar will help if you feel the need to splurge.
• a free pen/pencil (ditto)
• a $0.99 yellow pad

We’ll keep it simple for now and create a process for each of these events:

• A new prospect contacts you
• A new customer buys for the first time.
• An existing customer buys again.
• Someone calls to make an appointment.
• You communicate with a prospect or customer.

DIRTY WORK

Now it’s time for the real work.

Use the yellow pad for these tasks:

• When a prospect contacts you, write their name on one of the yellow pad sheets. Write the date they first contacted you at the top of the sheet. Below or next to that, write “Last contact date” and keep it updated (yes, it’ll get a little messy, but this is a paper system). Ask them who to thank for sending them to you. Write down the answer as “Source”. It might be a person, an ad or something else.
• Keep a separate sheet for each prospect. Keep the sheets sorted by last name, unless you have a different way that works better for you.
• When a prospect becomes a customer by buying something, write a C in one of the upper corners of the page so you know they’re a customer. In addition, write the first date of purchase at the top of the page. Write “Last purchase date” next to or below it. Keep it updated each time they purchase. Use a calendar on the internet to figure how out many days since they last bought. Write that down too.
• When contacting (or contacted by) a customer or prospect, write a summary of each contact on their sheet. Indicate briefly their satisfaction level.

Use the calendar to remind you to perform these tasks:

• Record appointments. Make note of them on the prospect/customer sheet so you can follow up as well as thank them.
• Follow up with a note a few days (if that’s the right timing) after a new customer buys for the first time. Write the follow up on the appropriate date as soon as they buy.
• Follow up with a customer after an on-site delivery or service to make sure all is well. If a staff member or contractor is doing the work, use the follow up to make sure that they were on-time, clean, courteous and took care of the customer’s needs.

Do these every day:

• Check the calendar for follow ups, appointments, thank yous and such. Make them that day. Don’t get behind or you’ll never do them.
• Check the contact sheets to make sure that customers are being properly taken care of. Your “satisfaction level” comments should feed this process.
• Check the contact sheets for customers who haven’t bought in at least a month (or whatever time frame makes sense). Follow up to see why they haven’t been back  and include that on the sheet. If a particular competitor is involved, make note of that.

BOOOOOOORINNNNNNG!

Yes, this is mundane stuff.

It’s also exactly the same stuff that *so many businesses* fail at day-in and day-out. If you can’t get the basics right, you need to fix them.

Disclaimer: The computer guy half of my head insists that I remind you that manual processes and yellow pads don’t scale well (and eventually not at all), meaning that what works for 20 or 100 customers doesn’t work worth a darn for 500, 1000 or 10000.

Because paper doesn’t scale, I know what happens next. You get busy and eventually, you just won’t do the work. This happens despite the realization that doing all that stuff is at least part of the reason you got so busy.

If you do realize there’s a connection there, then you’ll either decide to introduce some technology or you’ll get some help. This kind of work is ideal for a stay-at-home parent, retiree or similar.

Crude? Perhaps. Understanding the value of these tasks – and of a tool that automates much this labor – is easier after doing it the hard way. This effort is just as valid for a four-star restaurant as for an oil change shop.

What have you learned from the Angry Birds – other than how to burn up a ton of time?

Having a (if not the) best selling game glued to the top of the iPhone AppStore charts has made Rovio a household name among smartphone users. But what have they done that you can learn from?

Free works as a marketing strategy, as always (@chr1sa would agree): The Angry Birds free edition is at the top of the AppStore charts for free games. That it’s also at the top of the paid charts is indicative that they chose the right price point and gave the free version just enough to get players hooked.

Use the news and the calendar: They created a Halloween version, a holiday version with Christmas hams and so on.

Would you like fries with that? Get stuck? You can pay a small amount to get past that annoying place in the game that’s frustrating you.

Perfect, then project: Once making the game a success on the iPhone was complete, they moved it to other mobile platforms (iPad, Android) and then to the Mac – leveraging a substantial investment in development, as well as expanding their market to new customers on other hardware.

Get value from the gatekeeper: Apple’s AppStore is the gatekeeper to Rovio’s biggest market to date. There’s nothing wrong with using a gatekeeper’s services as long as they deliver value…and customers. Often they’re exactly what you need to reach cruising altitude.

How are you using these strategies? Which ones did I leave out?

photo credit: the half-blood prince

Last week a Flathead Beacon reader sent me a nice note about a column that he liked, and while doing so, posed a question.

He said “One thing I am dying to read from you, is how do you get rid of a pain in the butt client — or a pathological recreational shopper — or the perfectionist from hell — without him or her poisoning your other customers?”

He’s not in for what he probably expected.

In my experience, few clients really, truly need to be fired (aka “gotten rid of”).

Why not just fire them?

Three reasons:

• If they really, truly are worth firing, it’s often easier to get them to fire themselves without any negative consequences for you. Raise the bar on what it takes to become/remain a customer. The benefits of doing this are substantial.
• If they aren’t worth firing but are simply a thorn in your side, it’s the person in the mirror (you and your business) that needs to make changes. Once the thorny customer is satisfied, they usually become one of your biggest fans. I’ve seen it time and time again.
• How hard is it to get a new customer? What does it cost in time, effort and money?

As I said, if they really need to go, I prefer to work things out so that they fire themselves. But that isn’t the question he asked, so let’s address it.

Back to the question

Let’s do the easy one first – The “pathological recreational customer”.

Some things to consider:

• Are they coming into your store just to get warm? Obvious…maybe, but be careful. More on that soon.
• Are they shopping for someone else?
• Are they a mystery shopper?
• Are they investigating but not personally planning to buy? The smart ones aren’t going to tip their hand until price comes up and the business is ready to buy.
• Did they randomly walk into your store?
• Are they doing price comparisons on your store for a competitor? Note: anyone with a smart phone can do this. Get over it. In fact, get over price as the ONLY competitive edge. Part of your edge, fine. All of your edge? Not so fine.
• Is their recreational shopping a burden to your business?

Have you talked to them? “I notice that you like to browse through our store but you haven’t become a customer. Is there something you need that we don’t offer?” and take the conversation from there. Again, be careful. You gain nothing from embarrassing a (potential) customer, but there is plenty to lose.

Keester pain

The next easiest one is the “Pain in the Butt customer”.

Let’s consider the reason they’re a pain. It could be one or more of these:

• The customer is just one of those angry-at-the-world kinds of people.
• The customer is not being treated in a manner that meets or exceeds their expectations.
• The customer is not being treated well by anyone’s definition.
• The customer bought a product or service that doesn’t meet or exceed the expectations you set, which again could mean that you didn’t set any. Sometimes called “merchantability”, we ask the question “Is the product/service reasonably able to solve the problem or fill the need it was being sold for?”
• The customer has unreasonable expectations.

Note the operative word? Expectations. Do a better job of setting them.

The pain in the butt can most often be turned into your best reference by simply becoming their advocate.

Boy, it’s hot in here

The “perfectionist from hell” is the one you’ll be most tempted to get rid of. Problem is, they often fit into the “keester pain” category.

More often than not, they’re really an indicator that your product line or services are missing one or more tiers of service at the high end. Yep. It’s probably an opportunity. Isn’t that cool?

People like this often have high personal accountability standards and (right or not) hold others to those same standards. Your regular products and services at their regular prices aren’t a good fit for them and their appearance of perfectionism is a good indicator of that.

Add another level.

A higher quality product with a greater level of service attracts a customer who might be a perfectionist and is also willing to pay more for that level of quality.

It’s also a great way of defining expectations for the customer BEFORE they make the purchase and allowing them to choose how they’re served.

It’s Chevy Suburban vs. Cadillac Escalade. Both have a market.

First the iTunes store.

Now the Mac App Store doubles Evernote’s hourly rate of new user signups.

How many times does the forehead need slapping before it’s obvious that making it easy to buy is what it’s all about?

Make it easy to buy.

Make it easy to buy.

Make it easy to buy.

photo credit: andrewasmith

Recently, we were talking about making it easy to buy a TV, but this stuff isn’t just about TVs.

Merchandising is both an art and a science.

Big business invests millions studying it and testing what works and what doesn’t. You should pay attention to it as well to the extent that you can.

The goal is still to make it easy to buy.

Is your grocery like every other one that created high-margin convenience stores by putting ALL of your milk at the back of the store?

Sure, that ploy works. If it works that well, why not move the checkout stands to the back of the store? Or make people move through your store like a Disney ride – by exiting through a maze of “Mommmmmmyyyyyy, can I have that?” impulse items?

Or do you keep a small milk chiller near the front of your store like Stew Leonard‘s store does?

These days, even the convenience stores have the milk at the back of the store. While we chase that rabbit, ever wonder why liquor stores don’t carry milk and bread? I suspect some do, I just don’t recall seeing one.

Grow (and think) beyond your needs and wants. Serve your customers like no one else.

photo credit: nagillum

As I read the story about the success of logger James Stupack’s new business, it struck a chord with me.

I was quite pleased to hear of his creativity and stick-to-it attitude. It’s easy to give up. He didn’t.

He added value.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking to folks locally about doing the sort of things Stupack did to add value to a commodity product.

Sometimes it comes in the form of a question, like “So..if I’m in Atlanta and I want fancy columns for my timber-frame home – why would I buy a log from you way up there in Montana when there are perfectly good trees here in Georgia, South Carolina and so on? Either way when I get it here, I’ll have to pay someone to add character to it.”

Stupack answers that question by specializing in making his commodity into something far more valuable than “just a log”. It’s especially cool that these just happen to be the same logs that might have been left to rot (or burned as firewood/slash) in the past.

Not always a commodity

Sometimes what you sell isn’t a commodity, such as tech (software development, web design, graphic design, etc) or services like oil changes, small engine repair, or even musical instrument cleaning and refurb.

So how do you create value for something like that, especially keeping in mind that you’ll probably want to sell your business someday.

One threat to your eventual sales price is that you’ve created a job rather than a business. If that fits your lifestyle, that’s fine – but most business owners have the idea that they will someday be able to sell their business.

In order to make that happen – and not have the buyer’s bank laugh at the sales price – you have to demonstrate some value that even a banker would love.

In the case of a retail store that sells snowmobiles, jewelry or water heaters, historical sales trends will give the prospective buyer (and their banker) some numbers to make sense of.

That customer list thing again

But for that service business, many owners find themselves looking for a buyer and having nothing valuable to sell except their customer list, if that.

Quite a few don’t have a customer list. We’ve talked about that many a time. To repeat: you should have a list of customers and contact information so you can reach them in an emergency. Or a non emergency…

Even with a huge list of customers, you aren’t going to get much interest from the banker unless you can prove recurring sales.

If you have data (and you should) that shows average frequency of purchase for your customers, average sales for that purchase interval, then they’ll be a little happier.

What you want to aim for is a way to show them dependable revenue even if you (but not your staff, if any) disappear for a month.

How so?

In the case of a graphic artist, you might sell your icons and artwork online, as handmade prints on Etsy.com, or in a litany of other places. You might still do custom work for clients, but you have a cadre of products that sell even if you don’t have ANY custom work going on.

The same goes for other tech services businesses. The software consultant who works on an hourly or project basis but has no software on the market is worth almost nothing when they can’t work. The same goes for the amazing web developer and similarly skilled folks. Both of them have done little more than create a job for themselves but are not building equity in their business. If contract work dries up, so does their wallet.

The oil change place is usually smart enough to solicit fleet work, such as changing the oil and providing other regular maintenance to city, county or corporate fleet vehicles. Even if they don’t see a retail customer this week, that fleet work will help them meet their nut for the month.  Those fleet customers are valuable because their business is PREDICTABLE.

The same strategy is just as effective for the musical instrument sales and repair shop.

Buyers and their bankers love predictable, especially when we’re talking about income.

These days, a lot of buyers are replacing a job they’ve lost. Having a business that can replace their income in a predictable manner is going to make your business more attractive to buyers – and in the meantime, it’ll do a lot better job of taking care of you.

photo credit: thebittenword.com

Historically, my Scout troop does ok on our annual popcorn sale fundraiser.

The guys have done well enough over the years that a number of them managed to pay for their campouts pretty much year after year.

One of them had earned enough to buy himself a super nice down sleeping bag good down to 40F below zero. He likes to hunt in the backcountry all winter, so it was a good purchase for him.

On and off, a few of the guys did really well, reaching the scholarship level, where a percentage of their sales is put in a scholarship fund by the popcorn company.

But, as our troop’s average age rises and falls, we see a falloff during the years when our troop’s average age is a bit older. Teenagers have jobs, sports and other things – plus they just aren’t into the door to door thing.

Benjamin failed

The last 2 years, we tried a special incentive to get the boys motivated each week.

Each of 3 weeks of the popcorn sale, we offered the top seller for that week a crisp Benjamin (Yes, a $100 bill) if their sales reached a minimum level.

Of those 6 opportunities, we gave away ONE $100 bill.

Our sales were ok, especially given the age of the troop, but when $100 bills dont motivate a teenager who has gasoline needs, we knew we missed the boat.

New blood, new carrot

This year, we had a new-to-the-troop mom in charge of organizing our popcorn sale.

In addition, we have a number of new guys, so we expected the total sales to rise.

Still, we wanted to motivate them so they’d be able to pay their Scouting-related expenses over the year without asking their families for money. Times are tight in our little town, so every little bit helps.

Our new popcorn chairperson had some fresh ideas. She had get out of doing dishes on a campout coupons for minimum weekly sales and a big carrot for total sales over a certain amount.

Pie didn’t

The carrot? Getting to throw a pie in my face.

I’m the Scoutmaster. Tossing a pie in my face is a big, fun treat for a boy. Of course, I dragged my Troop Committee Chair into it. I wasn’t gonna meet the pie(s) alone, after all.

TEN boys qualified to throw a pie. That’s ten boys who exceeded our average sales-per-boy goal by $200 or more.

Our troop’s total sales were up NINETY FOUR percent.

I have a number of boys who struggle to fund campout expenses, gear and what not. Pie motivated them to work to pay their own way, a lesson worth learning.

Now I get to face 10 pies next Tuesday, but it’s worth it knowing how many boys don’t have to worry about campout expenses (and then some) for at least a year.

Think harder.

So why did pie work and a $100 bill not work?

Ever try to sell a comb to a bald man? That’s what the $100 bill was.

A $100 bill isn’t real in the world of many 12-15 year olds. They had trouble grasping the idea of  (and getting fired up about) something they’d never owned (and some had never seen), so they didn’t feel any motivation for it.

But…a pie in the face of an adult authority figure? That’s golden.

And you?

What are you doing to motivate your staff? Your customers?

What motivates you isn’t necessarily (and most likely isn’t) what motivates your staff or your customers.

Your job is to set your mindset aside long enough to find out what’s important in theirs.

photo credit: Lida Rose

Cold calling. Really.

Or maybe this particular call should be considered warm, since this vendor and I have what most doctor’s offices would consider a “relationship”. Only a doctor’s office would consider it such a thing, but I digress.

Anyhow, a vendor rep called me not long ago. I let the call go to voice mail because I was busy and in the middle of something. (Hint: You should do more of that unless taking calls is your job.)

The odd thing about the call was that the person left their name and number, but didn’t bother to address me, suggest a reason for the call, or give me a compelling (much less lousy) reason to call back.

Name. Number. Click.

That’s what I got.

Why exactly did you call?

I was reminded of Raymond Chen’s “Is that i or y?” post when I got the call.

If you are going to depend on cold (or even lukewarm) calls to make your sales quota (or your business profitable), one thing would help.

• Appear to give a darn when you call. “Name. Number. Click.” doesn’t leave that impression. Nor does a “Oh my will this day *ever* be over” tone of voice.
• Leave a message – but not just your name and number and a click. Give me a compelling reason to drop everything else I have going on and call you back right away. If you don’t have such a reason, then cold calling is a poor way to sell your stuff, no matter how valuable it might be. It’s ok that it isn’t so romantic or enticing that I don’t call you right back  - but it had still better bring some value and/or intrigue to the table. Provoke me to be interested. “Name. Number. Click.” doesn’t do that. Not even close.
• Find a way to improve your sales process. I really doubt that management would suggest calls made like that. I can just about guarantee they’d never return a call like that. “Name. Number. Click.” calls just don’t get returned. So why make them?

OK, so that’s three things. I could continue, but let’s keep it simple.

Back to #3 on that list. Make a serious effort to improve. Just about any sales self-improvement author could help, like Tom Hopkins, Chet Holmes, Zig Ziglar, and if you want to focus specifically on sales calls, Art Sobczak.

The “Name. Number. Click.” thing isn’t working at all.

photo credit: Ash-rly

A couple of weeks back, I received an email from a website owner asking for one of my OpenLine sessions (which are currently booked about two weeks out).

In essence, the question was “Why aren’t our clients registering for our services?”

The situation required more discussion (in detail, anyhow) than I could cover in 15 minutes, but it also screamed for a blog post – because some of the things their site needs to attend to are core things that all of us need to think about.

It’s a great looking site, but the conversation with their real customers’ core thought process just isn’t there.

The reason for that might not be obvious, especially since the site looks nice and invites you to dive right in to do a search.

Problem is, there’s more than one customer population, and the second isn’t getting much attention on their website.

The site is a service directory, so by nature that means there are going to be at least TWO populations of customers: people wanting to list something in the directory and people wanting to find that something. Maybe more.

Because you might have other ideas, take a look at RentMyChurch.com and comment here if you feel I’ve missed something.

Customer #2?

The churches listed there.

If I’m renting my building to “strangers”, I’ve got a lot of questions.

Most rentals tend to be to church member families or friends of the family and this helps break down a lot of obvious barriers. Even so, many church boards require a vote at a council meeting before a rental is approved.

Now we’re talking about starting to commit to rentals to just about anyone who clicks a link.

At the very least, there’s needs to be a section that addresses all the what-if’s, questions, concerns and risk factors for a church who wants to start renting their facility in this manner. Something that describes the process step by step.

So what else is missing?

Let me put my church lady hat on…

I’d like to see a serious guarantee for the church listing their property/facility. A guarantee needs to make me feel like I’ve got as little as possible (or nothing) to risk and everything to gain, but in this case, the risk reversal just isn’t there. The current guarantee might be reworded this way: “If we don’t do anything for you in an entire year, we’ll do that again for nothing!”  Sounds different when you look at it that way.

Sales objections aren’t addressed. Try to hit them in advance, before you ever hear them from the prospect.

How does RentMyChurch get prospects in my local area to look at the site?

What are common signs I should look for to know I’ve got a good renter? Likewise, what warning signs should I look for?

Do you have sample rental agreements for churches who are just starting to dip their toe in this water.

If I’m a little church in a town of 5000 people, do I pay the same as the Lakewood, North Point or Willow Creek? (all are huge churches)

What about insurance and bonding?

Do you have sample check lists for check-in/check-out?

What paperwork should we need to create a successful rental?

What works and doesn’t work when creating my church’s “bio”?

What about photos? Can you refer me to a good building photographer in my area? (that is a gift, btw)

How do I know what dates are available?

Testimonials – there isn’t a single one from a renter or a church.

Where are the social aspects of a service? The 3 R’s: rankings, referrals and reviews

That’s just a start, but I think you get the idea. These aren’t things to be addressed AFTER the sale, these are things to show up front that show you DESERVE the sale.

Make a case

As we talked about with the compelling discussion the other day, make a case such that this is a no-brainer. What makes it clear that I’d be nuts not to list my facility on this site?

As for everyone else – what makes it clear that you are the only choice for what you sell or do?

photo credit: jaeWALK

Some of you are probably aware that I have a persnickety thing about customer service.

In today’s guest post, the folks at 37 Signals have taken a very realistic example and turned it into a great teaching opportunity: How to help someone even if the answer might not be what they wanted, vs. responding/reacting to a question with the lower common denominator of factual company policy.

Isn’t a transformation from “just another danged phone call” to a “hey, we got a new customer” *exactly* what you’re looking for?

Take it in. Inhale it and infect your customer service folks with this kind of attitude.

photo credit: shortlake

Every day, a lot of folks pull on the panty hose or cinch up the silk tie, drive a $20-30-40K car to the office and then proceed to pursue prospects with a club, just like the caveman did umpteen thousand years ago.

They’ve been told (or know from experience) that for every 500 (or 150, 0r 4500) prospects they chase, they’ll manage to catch and club a certain number and drag them back to the cave (er, I mean office) by the hair, just like those Geico guys used to chase to do when they chased mastodons thousands of years ago.

So how does the modern day caveman decide what to do today? They look at their quota for the day and go out looking for someone to club.

But…I don’t see many doing the math. Of those who do, seems like an awful lot of them are taking that quota for the day and multiplying it times the number of mastodons… I mean prospects… it takes to get a daily-quota-full of customers.

Don’t get me wrong

I don’t want anyone to think that getting those new customers is a bad thing. It isn’t as long as you’re delivering what they want and need.

My point is that you’re wasting a lot of time chasing the mastodons that do little more than waste your time. Why chase something that runs 1 mph (in effect) faster than you?

To wear it down? What if you wear down first?

Will you be able to run just as fast at 50 as you do at 25 or 30? (inside secret – not likely, no matter what YOU think)

To be sure, if that’s the only way you can get there, by all means head out with your club rather than doing nothing.

Just keep in mind that you’re working harder than you have to. Not that there’s anything wrong with working hard (notice a pattern here?), but if you’re gonna lift mastodons over your head, lift the ones that pay off.

So what’s the alternative?

Get the mastodons to chase you

Taking your club, going out and getting 500 NOs so you can get 10 YESs works, but it works in a way that hides the waste.

What if you could get 25 to 50 of those people to line up in the “Maybe, tell me more” line IN ADVANCE?

Not only would you waste a lot less time hearing “No” but you’d have a TON more time to talk in detail with folks who are actually interested in what you’re have to offer them.

Instead of rushing from No to No, you’d have all that extra time to actually LISTEN to the Maybes. Imagine how much more you could learn about what they need.

Real time, real money

Let’s take a look at the real cost. “Extra time” is a little too fluffy for me.

Figure you spend 5 minutes at the most *on average* with those 500 prospects: 5 minutes per call times 500 calls is 2500 minutes.

That’s TWO and a half WEEKS, plus an hour and change, assuming you’re working 40 hour weeks. You’re getting nothing else done for that two and half weeks?

• Can you pay your way on the 10 or 50 clients/sales that gets you over that 2 week period?
• Can you maintain that pace?
• Do you have that many leads? (1000+ leads per month)

It’s a lot easier and more profitable to be the expert that people in that market seek out by reputation.

Plus it gives you the time to serve those folks properly rather than wasting your time disqualifying (“getting rid of”) 450-475 people.

Let your positioning do that.

photo credit: Limbo Poet

Many times I’ve suggested that you read Cialdini’s Influence.

Today’s guest post is a follow on to Cialdini – an audio documentary about what makes people buy: “Desire by Design” from American Radioworks.

Enter the conversation in their minds…

photo credit: myuibe

Here’s a little quiz about influencing decision makers: http://www.influenceatwork.com/CialdiniQuiz.html

Tell me how you did – and what you think about your answers (a key/explanation is provided after the quiz).

I got a 90%. The one I “missed” I disagree with because I think the right answer requires a mix of two possible answers ( the only two that make sense on the Microsoft question).

One important thing to take from this: Your ability or desire to influence stems from knowing that your solution will truly HELP someone and/or their business. The way I look at it, if you have THE solution for a particular problem/situation, you have an *obligation* to become an expert at showing why people need it.

This isn’t about some infomercial that sells someone crap they don’t need. It’s not about how many “closes” you have memorized (what a pile of crap).

It’s about your ability to understand your customer, analyze their wants and needs and then – if your solution fits – explain the solution in a way that makes it drop-dead-simple to make a purchasing decision.

More reading on this topic: Cialdini’s book “Influence”.

photo credit: Todd Huffman

Earlier this week, one of my younger Scouts did a presentation on beekeeping to the troop.

His family keeps bees and sells some of the honey as a hobby, so he had some knowledge of the topic and how the bees are handled – but if you are going to talk about a topic like that in front of a group of 11-17 year olds, you gotta come loaded for bear, right Winnie?

Lame puns aside, he did a nice job of talking about how beekeeping is done.

We talked about how they start a hive, where the bees come from, what jobs each type of bee does (sidebar: all teenage boys find the job of the drones a bit fascinating), how the honey (and wax) is made, how many times you get stung, how the honey is harvested and all the cool equipment – including the smoke puffer gun thing, the honey extractor, hot knife and of course, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man beekeepers suit.

40 gallons of sticky-sweet fun

And then it got interesting. Someone asked him what they do with the honey, and how much they have.

His answer was “About 40 gallons stored around the house”, and he wasn’t sure how much they made each year. Someone asked again, “So what do you do with all that?”

“Eat it”, he says. Oh, and we sell some too, adding that he brought a few bottles if anyone wants some.

At this point, I’m thinking “We’re gonna have tasting and its going to be all over fingers, faces, hands and of course – the floor”.

But I was wrong.

That young man was wiser than his years.

He brought freshly-made biscuits, which he laid on the counter and sliced in half. Everyone who wanted some got to slather honey on em before they gobbled them down. These are teenaged boys we’re talking about. Any sort of food is an endangered species around these guys.

Once the honey-fest was over, lots of moms and dads got asked to take some home as a result (not something we do normally, but this was a special occasion – we had BISCUITS!).

What do they sop up your product/service with?

Your turn: What would be the biscuit that transforms the sale of your honey? (whatever your product or service might be)

In particular, think about stuff like this before a presentation, trade show or similar group event. Create the feeding frenzy, even if you sell something like fuel filters. Think about what would make your demonstration make people think “I GOTTA HAVE THAT!”

photo credit: Derek Purdy

So I’m on Amazon to pick up a copy of “Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives“.

Like any good salesperson would, the Amazon cart reminds me…

“Wait! You need to add $5.23 to your order to qualify for FREE Super Saver Shipping”.

Fair enough. But what would fit that bill?

Amazon shows me a few things in my “Saved items — to buy later” list and it also shows me some things that other people bought when they bought this book.

But it doesn’t show my Amazon Wishlist.

And it doesn’t show me the most recent items on my Wishlist (or Saved Items) that cost $5.23 or more.

You know the thought process: If I need to spend $5.23 to get free shipping (worth about $5), I’m going to be more willing to spend $5.23 than I am $15.23.

So why don’t they show me those items that are most likely to get me over the edge?

Now, put on that Amazon hat and look around your store or your online shop.

What can you do to push them over the edge and make it easier to buy?

photo credit: lynn dombrowski

Not long ago, we were talking about being “… only as good as your last transaction.”

I was chatting with someone on Twitter yesterday and mentioned that “every job is a sales job”, which provoked a response from someone in Missoula who asked: “Even the garbage man?”

Abso-flippin’-lutely.

Tomorrow morning, my trash gets picked up. Watch carefully for a sales guy.

Garbage man “A” accidentally knocks over your trash cans with the fender on his truck.  He jumps out of the cab, tosses out a few pieces of creative language about knocking the cans over, empties them into the truck, leaves the trash that fell out right there on the ground where it fell, tosses the cans back into the driveway with a rattle that would wake the dead.

Because it’s 6am, it seems as if he’s trying to make as much noise as possible. On that theme, he revs up his truck as he pulls away, riling up our annoying little white fluffy dog who barks at everyone as if they are Satan incarnate, meanwhile waking up the granddaughter.

Garbage man “B” also knocks over the cans, but unlike his competitor, he stops and picks up the spill, empties the cans, sets them quietly at the edge of the driveway and pulls away at a normal pace without making a fuss.

Obviously, the sales guy is garbage dude “B”.

Leaking more than antifreeze

You might be leaking sales.

This morning, I’m off to the radiator shop. You know, cuz I feel like it’s my duty to put the children of the automotive industry through graduate school. Arrgh.

Think about the public-facing staff at a radiator shop when I visit for the first time.

If I walk in and they are professionally-dressed, what’s my thought? I don’t expect the guys to be in $1000 suits, but I also don’t expect them to look like they haven’t showered in days and smell like a bottle of rum, much less yesterday’s hay hauling sweat.

In particular, since I’m the first appointment of the day, I expect a little more. Still, if the guy takes care of me and my rig and doesn’t force me to refinance the Stimulus bill, I’ll probably cut the guy some slack.

Even so, everything impacts the sale. The appearance of your staff, your place of business, parking lot, even the smell.

The smell?

Oo-ooo-that-smell (apologies to the boys from Alabama)

Sure. Imagine you’re walking into an extended care center. Maybe umpteen years from now, a relative simply can’t be cared for at home for some technical reason that is beyond your abilities.

When you walk into the first center, the halls are crowded with unattended residents in wheelchairs. There’s nothing going on anywhere.

As you turn down the hall where the bedrooms are, the smell of urine hits you like a Nolan Ryan bean ball. Blammo, right up side your head.

Smelling salts, anyone?

Meanwhile, the family member who raised you, nursed your wounds, listened to you whine as they dabbed that evil Mercurochrome on those wimpy little cuts on your knees is going to be sentenced to a place that smells like the floor of an airport restroom?

Nope.

Your next visit is totally different. While there isn’t a Nerf football game going on in the lobby, the place smells and looks pristine and the folks are active. Even the ones who aren’t so mobile are being read to or listening to music, etc.

The people who make all these things happen have sales jobs, whether they are changing Depends and cleaning up your grandmother, answering the phone with a snarl or counting back change at Pamida.

Active vs. Passive

Beyond the passive salespeople that we’ve just talked about, there are others. Some of them are almost invisible sometimes – until they interact with your clientele:

• The shy, slightly geeky slide rule totin’ field engineer with the pocket protector with his name on it.
• The mechanic who comes out of the bay to tell me the horrible, expensive news.
• The bug killer guy who slides out from under your muddy crawl space to tell you about the yellow jacket infestation.
• The young kid who takes you out to see the boat you just rented and teaches them how not to sink it or blow yourself up.

None of them are who you think of when you do sales training, but they should be.

They’re like the recon Marine patrol. Front and center, making a first impression.

Train em. Don’t expect to create a platoon of Zig Ziglar and Tom Hopkins clones.

Instead, expect results after arming your folks with the tools to produce them.

Since January 2005, I’ve been spent a lot of time explaining how Business is Personal.

When I started this journey way back then, I named the blog “Pancake Bunny“.

I called it that as a result of a customer service interaction where a company’s CEO told a customer that their message made no sense and then included the pancake bunny in their reply (click here to see the original pancake bunny).

It struck me that I had work to do.

Not solely because of the bunny remark, but because of a pervasive antagonistic attitude toward customers – especially by many in tech-related industries (remember, Ive been in the software biz since 1982).

Nine Hundred Eighty Five

Nine hundred and eighty four times I have posted here in order to teach this one important lesson. This one is number 985.

I’ve shared little anecdotes here and there, stories, admonitions, an occasional rant or two – whatever it takes to make you and your staff attract, sell, talk to, think about and work with your customers as if they are real people.

Like your grandma. Imagine that.

That lady you were snarky with on the phone this morning is probably someone’s grandma, or mom or something. Would you talk that way if she were in front of you? Hopefully you aren’t the snarky one in the first place and that was intended for someone else cuz you’d never do that.

Progress

I know that in many cases I am preaching to the choir, but I also know that many people have related personally to a story here and it has changed their business. They have finally seen how treating their clientele like a friend, a partner, a family member – changes their business.

Others have finally figured out that hiding from their customers, treating them poorly (if they treat them at all) and thinking “Damn, if those customers didn’t keep interrupting me I’d get some REAL work done” is not how business is done.

Instead, it’s how your “Dear Valued Customer” becomes someone else’s.

If you haven’t gotten that yet, today might be your lucky day.

Enter Mister Butts

Earlier today I got an email from a Twitter acquaintance named Rick Butts. He’s one of those internet marketer types (and he just winced when he read that – sorry Rick).

EXCEPT, he isn’t like many of them. He’s a regular guy who gets the Business is Personal thing.

If after reading Rick’s email, you don’t understand why you simply have to treat someone who is viewing your blog, your newsletter, walking into your store, calling you on the phone, or tweeting you *like your grandmother*, then I suggest going back to post #1 and read a few posts a day.

I can’t help but think it’ll help.

Here’s Rick’s email. Enjoy.

I Am Joe’s Email List – An Open Letter To Internet Marketers

Hi,

I am Joe’s email list.

Joe calls me his list, his peeps, and sometimes just “the list.”

But, I am not a list, really, I am not a crowd, or an audience. I am not “everyone out there” as they teach new broadcasters to say.

I am me.

One single person with hopes, dreams, stresses and fears.

In many ways I am just like you – the way you describe yourself in your hungry years before you went to that life changing event, read the book, and started making money online.

I get email from you Joe.

I can’t remember for sure, but I think I “joined” one day when you offered a free report or video and I had to put my email address in – and confirm – in order to see it.

In my inbox, Joe, your email looks just like the personal emails I get from my daughter or son, and sometimes, sadly, from my ex.

Now that you’ve been sending me email – as well as some of your “good friends” – I have begun to be able to see in a glance that they are just offers, sometimes disguised as important messages, sometimes blatantly, not.

Whenever I see the word “this” in your subject lines, like – “this won’t last long” – or “have you seen this?” I know it’s an offer.

Since the Product Launch Formula I and especially II – I’m amazed at how many times per month I am literally inundated with emails from so many people all about the same exciting product.

They arrive over multiple days, culminating in a bonus orgy that is just overwhelming.

I read a clever post in a forum once, that “the bonuses are so comprehensive, it makes me wonder what is covered in the course, that is not already covered in the bonuses!”

That made me laugh.

I’m writing you today, to share something important about myself – and I hope you’ll take the time to consider my feelings, ok?

I have to get off of some of these lists.

The volume of email and the distraction of chasing the offers is just crippling my time, my focus, and my ability to get things done.

When Rick Butts asked his readers to consider unsubscribing from the people who sent you Stompernet Launch offers IF they had not provided any useful content in the last month – he really got me thinking.

Then Ed Dale made a video saying, basically, that no one is holding a gun to your head and that if you wanted to stop getting offers – stop bitching – and just unsubscribe.

But here’s the deal. I’d LIKE to learn from you Joe – and to be able to know that being on “your list” is valuable to me, my business, and my future.

So, please don’t think me a big whiner, I’m a customer, and here’s what I respectfully request:

1. Slow down the frequency of mailing to me, Joe.

Do not email me every day – that’s just way too much now.

2. Don’t mail me offers all the time.

I’m reading a lot more RSS feeds from bloggers who are putting out great content. If you are using Feedburner or Feedblitz or Aweber’s blog notification service that mails me when you update your blog – then, cool. I’m good with that.

3. If you do mail me an offer PLEASE don’t cut and paste the pre-written one from the creator of the product.

Do you know how stupid that makes you look to me? And, how insulting it is to get them from multiple people?

4. Try giving me some TRUTHINESS in your communiques to me.

If you are really making money in the non-marketing-to-Internet-marketers, then tell me some useful tips that are working for you. No, you don’t need to tell me your market niche but hey, every once in a while how about your show me how valuable I am to you buy sharing one of those SECRETS?

5. Show me some stuff that made less than $1,000,000.00.

I’d be immensely interested in real world examples of success I can get my head around. I’m never going to build a big list of “biz-op” peeps and hammer them with a big JV launch. Show me how I can make $500 a week – then be able to replace my income and quit my skank job.

6. Stop bragging about your zero-gravity dives and how you are spending my money in outrageous ways.

Trust me, this is a lot more fun for you, then it is for me to read about it. You may excuse it as “inspirational” but I dont’ even think that works in MLM anymore. It just annoys me. A little “high life” goes a long way and I’m more impressed by how Internet marketing lets you enjoy your family.

7. Please, please, please, for the love of God, stop participating in these dreadful launches!

Let me believe you are successful enough without having to bend over and schlup me and the rest of my list mates through your embarrassing attempt to get me to “buy from you” and help you win a contest.

The reason Rick Butts wrote about the 12 Biggest Whores, without naming anyone, is that we have all watched the emergence of about that many well known marketers who cross-promote each others stuff so regularly it is hard to imagine that they do anything else.

I think that gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of things that would make getting email from you valuable again – and persuade me not to unsubscribe from you forever.

Final thought…

The blowback from the “unsubscribe” and “launch fatigue” has been to accuse me and my list mates, the little people, of being whiners.

And while there is no shortage of whiners in the world, I want you to know that from the bottom of my heart – I am pleading with you to not dismiss me so easily.

What most of us really want is for you to provide us with value, treat us like a long term relationship, and we will, certainly reward you for helping us get to the next level.

Now back to check my email, I think there’s a Traffic Secrets 2.0 launch today?

Sincerely,

Joe’s List

photo credit: kevindooley

I have this vendor who makes me a little bit nuts.

When communicating with them, I feel like I’m trying to get my golf clubs from an ex-wife who hates me.

You know how it goes… If I ask her the wrong way, she’ll wrap them around a tree in the front yard and say “Here ya go, honey!”

Result: I ask very delicately.

I can’t imagine why anyone would purposely position their clients like that, so I have little choice but to believe they are unaware of this situation. I have no idea how that could be, but you knew that already.

Trouble is, when you’re in that sort of position, you really can’t even suggest to them that they might address the issue. Back to the golf clubs.

So what do I do? Mostly, I’m forced to ignore it because I can’t do anything about it.

What about you?

Do you have a critical path vendor that makes you feel that way?

If so, did you find a new critical path (not just a vendor, a whole path) or do you just put up with it because you can’t get that one thing anywhere else?

In my digging around, I hear the latter most of the time and I just don’t get it.