VAL-idation: Social Media Quick Fix Ranks Second or Worse to This Loyalty Program
September 21, 2009 by Mary Ellen · 2 Comments
If you’ve signed up for Facebook’s fan pages, a Twitter account, or any one of various other social media outlets with little result, you may have fallen victim to the quick fix.
No matter what business you’re in, today’s social media promise beckons because it sounds good. Build community. Increase visibility.
Good business may not come quite so easily.
Good business requires ongoing work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is clueless.
I got a call at 4pm Sunday from a good businesswoman: Valerie Compton of Body Language. There may be more reasons why Valerie’s doing well, but here’s a list of 10 things that put her in a class by herself in my book.
- Call former customers for no reason. Valerie calls people she hasn’t seen in some time. Not to beat them up (although she can do that. “Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…must be feeling a little guilty about the amount of time I’ve devoted to working out recently.”)
- Call when it works for you. How many times have you dialed a customer on the weekend? It got my attention.
- Make it all about “the customer.” Once you’ve placed the call, be interested in your customer. Draw them out with a specific question or two. See tip #4.
- Ask about the family. Everyone likes to talk about their family. An astute salesperson like Valerie remembers names and asks about partners, friends, and the pieces of your life that make you YOU. As a result, you feel cared for.
- Network. Early in the summer a friend mentioned Val had asked about me. How many business owners do you know who make/remember such associations (see tip #4)?
- Implement new ideas. Everybody is busy these days. Valerie too. Yet, after she took an interesting class in New York, Valerie found time to implement a similar program. Her Body Barre classes, described as ‘ballet on steroids,’ are consistently full. (Bonus: Look for like businesses when you travel and check for ideas.)
- Publicize your business, especially its innovations. Fit, a monthly supplement to the Albuquerque Journal published a story about Valerie and Body Barre. Earlier, Body Language opened a second location in Nob Hill to other publicity.
- Suggest solutions. Of course Valerie invited me into the studio. I expected her to. She hadn’t seen me in some time and I would have been disappointed had she not asked me to participate in some way in her business. It wasn’t a hard sell, however. Instead, she suggested I might benefit from a specific class. Once again she presented a reason framed in my interest.
- Participate actively in your community. Valerie’s a member of AIBA, Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance, (Disclosure: I’m the current AIBA president) and active in her church. She probably has other interests as well.
- Be passionate about what you do. No question. Valerie is energized, consumed, driven by her business. She works quickly, talks enthusiastically and emanates purpose. The result? A presentation people notice.
VAL-idation. Any one of these ideas could move your business forward.
How can you stand out from the crowd? Would any of Valerie’s techniques work for you?
Client Cancellation? Prepping for Disaster Avoidance
September 17, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
What happens when you lose your biggest client?
A service provider I know rolled her eyes. “I’m already there,” she sighed. “Got the word yesterday…my biggest client has a cash flow problem and is taking a hiatus.”
Other group members responded:
“I’m worried about next quarter. It’s soft.”
“I don’t like to think about those things. I’ve worked with the same clients for years.”
“If I don’t add some business soon, I’ll have to lay somebody off.”
“My biggest client was just bought out. At the moment, it doesn’t appear anything will change.”
“There’s plenty of other gloomy things to consider. Don’t make trouble.” (Sarcastic NOTE: There’s a proactive stance. Stick your head in the sand and don’t worry. If you don’t think of it, “It” doesn’t exist.)
In any economy, business comes and goes. Clients change their plans, their minds and their habits. In tough times, anticipating these changes means the difference between survival and failure.
Smart day-to-day operations include practices for maintaining current business as well as soliciting new business. Here are a few ideas:
- Practice Pareto’s Principle: 80/20. Quick. Do you know the 20% of your customers who comprise 80% of your business? Focus efforts on the top 20% without completely neglecting other opportunities.
- Name your top customers. If you’re a service provider with a short list of clients, think about employees at your big clients. Can you address them by name? Retailers, do you know your biggest regular customers? Restaurateurs, do you address your regulars by name? Personalizing business makes a difference. Sometimes, people stay with you because they believe you care.
- Know the state of your clients’ business. Become familiar with business seasonality, industry trends, and competitive nuances of each client’s business. Know big selling items, high profit ones, etc. See reason number two. Demonstrate you care.
- Check in. When was the last time you gave a call to simply check in with a customer? That’s right. A no-sell, no-reason call.
- Develop an ongoing thank you system. Your thank you could be as simple as a handwritten note, or, it might be a new idea, an extra-value placement, or some other reminder of your company’s worth.
- Publicize your efforts. Sure, you use your Facebook status, Twitter updates and your monthly newsletter. Is that enough? Do you need another marketing channel? Have you looked at a case study or considered approaching a local publication about a client success story? The beauty of this kind of publicity is that it works for you and for your client at the same time.
- Identify a list of 10 to 15 prospects and do something each day to reach out to them. One advertising agency keeps a 10-postcard-mailer system in play. Over 10 days, 10 weeks or 10 months they mail to decision makers. For example, after meeting a contact at a chamber event, the agency systematically sends brightly colored messages; once the halfway point is reached, they call for an exploratory appointment. Key to the success of this prospecting system is systematic follow through and a definitive number of prospects.
- Market on! Ongoing marketing is the key to avoiding disaster. Prepare now for the possibility of client loss. Who knows? You might find yourself with an increase in business instead of a loss.
By now, you’ve probably got your own juices flowing. Go ahead. Tell us what works for you. What are you doing to ward against losing your biggest client?
Trust – Igniting Relationships That Work
September 7, 2009 by Mary Ellen · 1 Comment
Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Teal Book of TRUST: How to Earn it, Grow it, and Keep it to Become a TRUSTED ADVISOR in Sales, Business, & Life got to the top of my reading pile recently. Once complete, I wondered why it took so long.
The Little Teal Book gives as good as it gets. For example, the book itself works on the premise of building trust.
- There’s the color. Teal headlines, chapter titles, points of emphasis and reversed out quotes showcase content.
- Small red accents add emphasis throughout the book and a red ribbon bookmark further coordinates.
- A few color cartoons make statements underscoring content particulars.
- The slick pages feel good. I found myself enjoying holding the 5” x 8” book. In fact, I was glad I had it in hardback rather than on the Kindle.
- These small and consistent considerations contribute to the overall impression of the book as “trustworthy.”
When it comes to “gets,” the Little Teal Book of TRUST asks more questions than it answers. A dozen subheads under section one listed questions to ask yourself. Examples reveal elements of your trustworthiness from how you were raise to who you choose to associate with.
In his conversational style, Gitomer offers questions to ask yourself as you seek to discover who your trusted friends are, or how to make a relationship of trust blossom. He discusses trust from the perspective of what it is and isn’t. He simplifies the subject by offering diverse and relatable examples and actionable ideas.
I suspect that Gitomer’s topic is not a comfortable one for many. Self-examination may be one reason. For another thing, he makes no secret of the fact hard work is required.
“You can be on the road to becoming a trusted advisor at the highest level, IF you do the HARD WORK to get yourself there.”
Although many parts of the book gave me pause, it was the forward that offered positioning:
“This is not a book that fits in one pigeon hole or another, and it’s not a book to be read by only salespeople or only customer service people – this is a book to be read and studied by everyone who thinks trust is important to gain, more important to keep, and most important to honor. You included.”
I’m suggesting he add, “Social media enthusiasts included.”
In a medium where speed and quantity seem more important than quality, social media mavens may need to rethink how they build trust.
Online – Online-itus? Taming the Email Beast!
September 4, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
The Wall Street Journal published an article by John Freeman, acting editor Granta Magazine, entitled “Not So Fast: Sending and receiving at breakneck speed can make life queasy; a manifesto for slow communication.”
Freeman’s essay is adapted from his book, The Tyranny of Email.
Freeman got some things absolutely right:
How many of our most joyful memories have been created in front of a screen?
And so:
If the technology is to be used for the betterment of human life, we must reassert that the Internet and its virtual information space is not a world unto itself but a supplement to our existing world where the following three statements are self-evident.
- Speed matters
- The Physical World matters
- Context matters
You’ll find explanations for each statement in the essay. For #2, The Physical World, for example, Freeman points to the proliferation of ads on the web and laments the damage to our attention span as well as personal relationships if we give up face-to-face business interactions.
I found the commentary thought-provoking. Consider:
Making decisions in this communication brownout, though without complete information, we go to war hastily, go to meetings unprepared, and build relationships on the slippery gravel of false impressions. Attention is one of the most valuable modern resources. If we waste it on frivolous communication, we will have nothing left when we really need it.
As a proponent of local, independently owned business, I vote for relationships. With the exception of Amazon (“Hello Mary Ellen Merrigan. We have recommendations for you.”), few online businesses make the personal comments or offer the insights that a local shopkeeper can. I like relationships.
Has the Internet interfered with your world? (NOTE: Answer honestly.) Here are the five five questions I asked to build my analysis.
- Has a partner ever accused you of “not listening?”
- Have you been privy to a meeting where one or more of the participants spent more time on their PDA/iPhone/Blackberry than listening to the discussion?
- Have you ever responded to an email without including the promised attachment?
- Do you suffer from time creep when you begin to empty the Inbox?
- If you’re away from the high speed connection, do you suffer twinges of withdrawal?
If you answered “No” to all five of these questions, call me. I need to know your secret. If you answered “Yes” to all five – even four of the five – you’re a candidate for online-i-tus.
According to Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports, 247 billion emails are sent each day. That’s one email every 0.00000035 seconds. If you imagine email’s increasing, you’re right. Overloaded? Overwhelmed?
Freeman’s got your cure: “Don’t send.”
