“Consumers are statistics.

  Customers are PEOPLE.”

–Stanley Marcus, Chairman Emeritus, Neiman-Marcus 

     In case somewhere between the thin divider line between 2009 and 2010, you might have lost sight of what’s important and instrumental to boosting business in these bleak economic times, I give you (Ta-ta-ta—-ta-ta!) the CUSTOMER!

     Former Ford Truck Operations Gen. Mgr. E.P.Williams is quoted in Tom Peters and Nancy Austin’s book, A Passion for Excellence, as saying:

We must always think the customer is in the middle of the thrust of what we’re trying to do.”

     Does that apply to small business too? Absolutely! Does it matter what kind of business you have or how old or new it is? Absolutely not!

     The challenge then is not in thinking, “How do we make more money?” It is in thinking (and acting on) “How do we get and keep more customers?” OR “How can we do a better job of providing the products and services that will attract more new customers and more return customers?”

     We already know that people buy benefits, not features. We already know that people buy products and services because of an emotionally-triggered buying motive (not a logical, rational, unemotional one!). We already know that every behavior (including buying motives) is a choice.

     And we already know if you’re reading this, you probably own or operate your own business or manage one, or part of one and/or that you’re an entrepreneur … so LEADERSHIP is also important to you.

     If you could lead the business or part of business that you’re responsible for into an ongoing, daily pattern of catering to customers and prospects with innovative new and value-added products and services that provide genuine benefits, wouldn’t that be a great beginning?

     If you could do that, you need only find a great writer/marketer (not just a marketing writer, mind you; there’s a big difference!) who has a proven track-record for triggering emotional buying motives and helping to attract the kinds of new and repeat customers you want. 

     Well, here’s the good news: You CAN do all that. It’s easier than you think. It means not accepting that the economy is a hovering doom. It means having the courage to cast off the past and the constraints that mindless politicians continue to force on small business.

     It means taking the road less traveled. This is not just empty talk, or hype. This is reality.

     If you’re serious about your customers, listen to them … and lighten up. Then watch what happens.  

More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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Yes, but are you happy?

     Survey findings based on 2009 data collected from 1.3 million Americans (by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) report — state-by-state, plus D.C. — identify where the happiest people live.

BEST/HAPPIEST STATES 

#1 – #6: Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee, Arizona, South Carolina.

WORST/UNHAPPIEST STATES 

#46 – #51: California, New Jersey, Indiana, Michigan, Connecticut, New York. 

     If you can’t stand waiting ’til the end of this post to find out where your state stands, I’ll give you the whole scoop right here, right now, but you have to promise to return after you find out whether you’re supposed to be happy or not, so you can get some free happiness guidance! Here. Do it!  . . . and when you’re done, ‘Mon Back!

     Welcome back! So are you happy now? Or did that little side trip just make things worse for you? Well, the survey findings are probably a useful thing for helping to target your sales message geographically.

    I mean you could probably send some angry messages into Louisiana, Florida and Hawaii, for example, and get back a lot of knowing smiles with piles of sales dollars. But you may not want to be so cavalier when you’re aiming at those sad souls in New York, Connecticut and Michigan.

     Hey, truth is that no matter who says what you’re supposed to be experiencing, happiness — like any other behavior — is a choice! Consciously or unconsciously, each of us choose our behaviors every minute of every day! And, like success, happiness is the journey, not the destination.

     Of course some states with more sunshine might do a better job of hosting the journey, or setting the table for our choices, but nothing and no one outside your mind creates or causes happiness or unhappiness. And where you live has very little to do with it. 

     Surely you know there’s truth to the old expression that “Misery Loves Company.” But, btw, so does “Happiness” and you need only look at faces around you at one of your upcoming parties to underscore that reality.

     The only gift greater than happiness is sharing happiness. Try it. You’ll like it.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Holiday Gloom and Other

Economic Bushes To Beat

     There comes for many business owners and managers a point in time — that inevitably seems to fall in the middle of holiday season — where you can no longer cut back business staffing or compensation, and other overhead expenses loom ominously over your head, like a guillotine, ready to drop.

      Uh, sorry for such a merciless graphic thought, but there ARE still options to exercise, and you ARE still reading, right? Use this “SQUEAKSMANSHIP”© checklist to prompt your brain to more closely consider your circumstances and determine some alternatives that can work for you now.

• Strategic Alliances. Even with or without exchanges of commissions or time, there are many ways to work together with allied businesses that can save money for all involved. Explore.
• Cooperative Advertsing and Marketing. Many manufacturers provide matching dollar and similar programs for retailers that represent their products. Many trade and professional associations and membership organizations provide discounted rate arrangements. Ask.    
• Shared PR. Jointly-issued news releases and cooperative events that promote participant businesses equally strengthen impact and minimize expenses. Poke around. 
• Barter. ANY combination of goods and / or services represent mutual benefit when traded. Local radio stations will often trade commercial air-time for products they can give away in listener contests. Make some calls.
• Shared Employees. Receptionists? Clerical? Contractors? IT? Programmers? Retail? Think. 
• Shared Services. Delivery? Maintenance? Bookkeeping? Look for what’s accessible.
• Shared Vehicles. Cars? Trucks? Construction equipment? Plows? Planes? If it moves…
• Shared Expenses. Mortgage? Rent? Insurance? Purchasing? Memberships? Hmmm…

YOU CAN ALSO…

     Put more marketing reliance on (less expensive than traditional media) Websites, Social Media, Email Campaigns (which don’t have to be spam, btw), News Releases, Captioned Photo Releases, Postcards, Business Card Distribution Displays, Newsletters.

     Put more sales reliance on commission + expenses and/or + advances (vs. salaries) … virtual sales force use … retail street performers.

     Put more emphasis on minimizing travel expense with less exotic, fewer frills regional and centralized meetings … minimizing energy use (Some major outlet stores are cutting back on lighting with customer explanations of fuel and community savings affected.

     Make this holiday season a half-full glass for YOUR business! Oh, and remind your people to NOT cut back on wishing customers and suppliers “Merry Christmas!” Merry Christmas!  

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Get your fingers out

 of other people’s pies!

You may be the boss. But don’t stick your nose into the creative process that’s being strategized or implemented by the writer(s) and/or designer(s) YOU hire. When you’re paying an individual or team to create your branding message, advertising, packaging, promotion, public relations, website, or Internet marketing: Back Off The Process!

If you’ve done your job up front by hiring top talent to begin with, leave it be. You risk losing personal respect, leadership control (including the ability to motivate), sales, and even market and industry stature by interfering in his, her, or their work in progress.

I’m NOT suggesting you don’t VERY carefully explain the perspective and posture you want to see be used in representing your business at the very beginning of the creative process. You need also to insist on a “How Goes It?” review / inventory / status or progress report half-way through the creative process.

And you positively must review every word and every graphic treatment BEFORE it’s released or launched or distributed, and offer an honest critique … which, btw, is usually better accomplished with questions than with judgement statements.

It’s your company and YOU are ultimately responsible for every verbal and every visual message conveyed. [And ad agencies and marketing groups — even in-house — love to walk the thin line of public acceptability and appropriateness; it wins them awards!]

But just because you think you’re a “creative whiz” and know how to write a nice email or drum up some sizzling topic for your kid’s science fair entry, or can draw cute pictures that always amuse people, do NOT think that you can match those you’ve entrusted to do the job!

If you were that talented at design or writing, you’d be a designer or writer. It’s just another way of expressing the old management theorem: Stick To Your Knitting! Creative people are not likely to be able to match your entrepreneurial drive and management / organizational and financial know-how. Tech people are, incidentally, the least creative.

Get the best people you can find to do the job, give them your input, take their pulse at the fifty-yard line, double-check their final product, but let them do the job.

I have seen countless great marketing, sales, and advertising campaigns be ruthlessly and unwittingly aborted by well-intentioned top management who haven’t a clue about how to connect their messages to their target markets.

No time to do all that creative process management stuff? Lacking the sensitivity to deal with the writers and designers? Not sure how to best direct or coach them? Call me. If I can’t do it for you, in a consulting role, I’ll find someone who can. [302.933.0116]

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If Jesus Christ

runs your business 

 . . . look before you leap!

     If you believe Jesus runs your business,  God Bless You, but be careful about how you represent yourself. It’s probably a fair estimate to say that a good deal more than half the world could care less about your religious persuasion as a business owner or manager.

     It’s probably also a fair estimate to say  that in most parts of the United States, and especially the major cities, there is even a pointed resistance — and even an antagonistic and spiteful attitude — toward religious (Christian) based businesses.

     Reality: Many non-believers are threatened.  Many dismiss you condescendingly as “just another Jesus Freak.” Many will go out of their way to not do business with you. Some will try to undermine your business efforts.

     That doesn’t mean you should give it up.  It does mean you should be careful. It means you and your spirituality will be best served by exercising Christian values in everything you do and every encounter you have without necessarily advertising them.

     All the time?  No. There are some times and places–and many ways–where it’s appropriate to publicize your beliefs where it won’t cost you business or relationships. You may not like having to “hold your tongue” but reality dictates that it’s sometimes best for your self and your business to not be making public proclamations about your religious orientations. As for ways to do it, HOW you say what you say is the key.

     Certainly, Jesus would advise  tolerance when confronted with contentiousness? Remember that the bottom line is if you believe you and your business are serving Jesus, you will best serve by passive accommodation: i.e., a “customer is always right” focus, which of course works for EVERY business.

     If your business is a local or regional one  that is located in a heavily Christian community, then you can be much freer in expressing your interests and affiliations than in a geographical area not as uniformly receptive to your mission.

     Of course you can be a rebel-rouser  and charge into the marketplace brandishing a religious banner, but you will be risking the prospective success of what your business existence is all about.

     Is closing up shop  worth you having made a lot of noise about the principles your business is founded on? Remember: When your doors close, so does your ability to contribute!

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

GOT A SICK WEBSITE?

Check Your Content Vitals!

     When words and sentences  are not set off in visually-balanced spacing arrangements, or are broken in mid-thought, or lack the proper relationship to one another, or suffer from overkill font treatments, or are simply too cluttered looking . . . they lose impact.

     When this occurs on your website,  you lose visitors. Lost visitors mean lost sales. And here’s what makes it even worse that very many business owners don’t realize:

Lost site visits = Opportunity losses

     A rarely thought-about or accounted-for reality  is that — like the exponential explosion of bad reputation that can be ignited by just one unhappy customer — there is a click-off dynamic in place which can threaten your website health by unhappy “pass-along visitorships.”

People talk. People Email. People Twitter. People Txtmsg.

     In the old days,  we would ask one another:  Did you see that front page story? Or, did you see that TV special? Now we say: Did you check that site? And how do you respond when you think a site eats dirt? Or maybe in a moment of assertiveness, you even volunteer to others that a site you just looked at isn’t worth their time to visit?

     Missed visits  from those who might ordinarily check a site but are forewarned to not waste their time by a family member, friend or associate who already stopped by (and found the site boring, stale or confusing) cost sales, the opportunity to cultivate sales, and — fairly or not — reputation … maybe even 2nd and 3rd hand negative comments.

     Your homepage and landing pages  cannot be too engaging. And — opposite of what many site designers and self-proclaimed website and SEO and SEM and conversion “specialists” would have you believe — it’s the content (copywriting), not the graphics that sell.

     If in fact the words are what sell,  why would you want to settle for anything less than the perfect sets of words on your site? Why would you want to have them be bro-                                  ken in the wrong places? Or have headlines that end or start a line of text on a peculiar                     word?

     In other words, YOU HAVE 7 SECONDS  to get someone into your site, or you’ve lost them. If you’ve lost them, those people are likely to lose you others, others who may never have even gotten a glimpse of your offerings.

     The best thing you can do  to prevent “Pass-Along” Site Visitor Virus, and minimize your website opportunity losses is to get (and pay the piper for) great copywriting. The words are critical. How the words appear is critical. A great copywriter tends to both of these ingredients.

     A great copywriter  is invested in creating and producing words that sell. What happens to your site visitors in the first 7 seconds?

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No Boy Scouts here.

T H I S   Is Business!

     C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries in England  brands its products with “Honest – Genuine – Trustworthy” because the drug chain recognizes that branding is all about behavior and the values you stand for.

     Theirs is no over-inflated “We promise you the world”  kind of empty promise that we see with so many businesses. Their three words tell you what they’re all about, without empty promises.

     What is YOUR business saying about itself?  Are you keeping at least one eye open to the message your business is putting out to internal and external customers? Is what you’re communicating consistent? Are you speaking the same language to your suppliers and investors and referrers as you are to your customers and prospects?

     Too many businesses —  especially(but not exclusively) those less than ten years old — seem to be glossing over the genuineness of what branding is all about. It is NOT a slogan, a motto, a jingle, or a cutesy themeline.

     Branding IS a concise statement of what you’re all about.  It is a way of telling then public that this is what you stand for. It is a short version of what your mission statement, vision statement and your goals are all about… all rolled into one! It’s how you think and behave.

     C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries  prints “Honest – Genuine – Trustworthy” on the surface of the products it sells. Why? Obviously because they believe it! What do YOU believe? Do you stand behind (or alongside) your products and services? Do your customers and prospects know it?

     Or are you trying to bamboozle them  into thinking you’ve got the world’s greatest product or service at the world’s best price, and by the way, not accepting returns when people find out what you’ve sold them doesn’t live up to what you’ve promised? Why are you promising what you can’t deliver? Branding is about delivering what you promise! 

     Stop hiring empty-suit marketing groups,  agencies, and consultants who tell you they’ll “brand” you with a “branding program” that will bring you untold riches. BS! All they’ll do is charge you big fees to win awards for themselves. I promise they will not deliver sales.

     When you go to an outsider  for these kinds of services, make sure that individual or group understands what you’re all about and is a proven expert at representing your authenticity in 7 value-packed words or less. Anything else, and you’re wasting your money.   

# # #

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

52,000 People Bitching

About Your Business??

     If you can’t deliver what you promise,  please—P L E A S E— close down your business and become a politician, or go work for the government. Don’t worry; you’ll be qualified! I guess I had a gullible sign around my neck, but in just a couple of weeks, I managed to stumble into three businesses that failed to deliver what they promised.

     From “Fresh-picked” apples  that I bought at an apple farm in upstate New York, and kept — as suggested —  in a cool place, that rotted out in 48 hours … to Comcast Cable TV that kept Kathy on the phone for one and a half hours arguing with a rep and three supervisors (one dumber than the next) for billing her 87 year-old mother for two years worth of equipment she didn’t have and never had (Kathy’s tenacity won a $248 credit!) … to a magazine editor who promised  to print a story I gave him and then never said a word about not doing it.

     Oh, there were others.  And I’m quite certain many of you could add many more of your own stories. What sucks is that not only do people lie about what they’re selling, they actually have the nerve to argue about it — and then to add a little fuel to the fire, pretend they know nothing about anything, and do everything possible to cut off communications. Amazing. They should all have to go before Judge Judy; she’d fix ’em..

We’re not just talking integrity here. We’re talking branding. BRANDING IS  having a customer know in her heart of hearts that she is getting what’s been promised, and will always have recourse with the business she’s dealing with who will literally bend over backwards, stand on their heads, spit wooden nickles and kill her with kindness… just in case they screw up!

     If you are in business and you are serious about making your business work,  please take the high road! When businesses (the boss, or ANYbody who works for the boss! ANYbody!) promise a service, for a specific price in a specific time period, or a product for a specific price to perform in a specific way (and be delivered at a specific time), that business must be prepared to follow-through EXACTLY as promised or suffer the consequences of being bad-mouthed.

     Bad-mouthed.  Studies show that one unhappy customer on one day will tell at least 10 and probably 20 other people how unhappy they are and will also in all likelihood embellish the story each time, and those people they tell will tell another five or ten each. [“You won’t believe what happened to Harry the other day…”] 

     Let’s say you run a 5-day a week business  and have just one unhappy customer a day (even though you may have 500 HAPPY customers a day!)? That’s a minimum of 2600-5200 people a year bad-mouthing your business, and being repeated to the tune of maybe FIFTY THOUSAND negative comments about your business. No, that’s not exaggerating. Think you’ll survive?      

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Is “bigger” always better?

   If you haven’t visited Twitter,  you’ve probably no idea how extensive the ego destruction can be if your postings (“Tweets”) haven’t attracted 37,416,298 “Followers” in the last 24 hours.

     Oh, and there are at least 64 gazillion  other Twitterers out there who have the magic formula that will turn you into an overnight Most Highly Followed and Esteemed Twitterer sensation. Probably make you the hero of your whole office or neighborhood even!

     It makes me think about  how wasteful media advertising is if you’re not interested in attracting the entire world to your doorstep. I mean, let’s assume you’re selling Swiss Screw Precision Parts that are used in rocket ships. Should you run a series of network TV commercials on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN? (Insert sounds of regurgitation here.)

     How about full page ads  for your grass-cutting service in one of those idiotic national newspapers for bar graph fanatics? Gee, a direct mail campaign combined with Twitter and Facebook postings could put your hand-crafted pottery pieces on the map, don’t you think?

     Tell you what:  if you have that kind of money to throw away (and stupidity level to match), call me first. I’ll get you some great deals.

     If your target market  is comprised of specific individuals or specific industries or specific geographic areas, don’t waste a penny on advertising that goes to other people in other places.

     Yes, this includes refusing to do business  with the sleazy phonebook companies that go to great lengths to fragment the markets you want to reach so you’ll have to buy space in two or three or more books that slice up your market and, in the process, add another dozen markets you don’t need or care about.

     “Phone book ads  are a necessary evil” I’ve heard so many people complain over the years, especially professional services. The truth? They ARE evil, but they are NOT necessary.

     Your parents taught you  that where there’s a will, there’s a way, right? So when did you forget that? There are other ways to reach the prospects and customers you want without having to sell your sister and your dog (other jokes there that I’ll pass on!) just to pay for reaching people who cannot or would not be your customers anyway. 

     It’s one thing when the economy is booming  (let’s see, that was…uh…) and it’s a great thing to spread your name and message everywhere, with cost not a factor. It is, however, quite another mindset that’s needed when the economy is as bad as it is and VALUE needs to dictate expense.

     You don’t need to cave in to making media people rich with money that should be staying in your pocket because you are too lazy to look for other options. There ARE other options. You WILL find them when you put your mind to it. Or not.

     There’s always that one-time special deal package  — discounted from $1,297,000 to $1, 215,000 — to sponsor a major national show in 14 states even though you only provide service to three counties in one state, but it’s “such a deal!” 

     With advertising, bigger is not always better … and the bigger the impact, the bigger the bill.     

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A business with no sign

is a sign of no business!

     Even if you’re running a business  out of your basement or garage or attic, and even if it’s illegal to have a sign outside, at least have one inside. If for no other reason than that the occasional visitor will be impressed, the IRS will give you less hassle about writing off a percentage of rent or mortgage and utilities, and –most important– it will make you feel good. 

     It doesn’t have to be a Times Square  smoke-blowing LED display spectacular. A piece of wood or cardboard will do just fine. The point is to give your business an identity. If you don’t who will? And when was the last time you had business dealings with, or rode through the desert on a horse with no name?  

     Okay, now let’s get to those eleven or so businesses  that are still not run out of the home. (That was a joke. My wife always urges me to announce a joke when I have a straight face like I did just then.)

Bottom line is that people judge

your business and you on first

impressions (and you’ll never

get a second one!)

     And many first impressions are at least formed in a large part by the sign on your building and/or in your window and or parking lot. 

     That sign needs to stand out.  It needs to communicate what you’re all about. It needs to be clean and attractive, visible and well-lit. Shrubs in the way? Trim them. Dirty frame? Wash or paint it. Bulbs out? Replace them. A sculpting studi0 I worked with uses lettering that is so thin and so fancy, it can’t be read when you’re parked next to it, never mind driving by.

A shabby sign tells people

you have a shabby business. 

     Replace or refresh it. A fish business has 20 signs on scrap wood that look like a 3 year-old spray-painted them. I drove past regularly for three years and refused to go there, thinking the fish couldn’t possibly be fresh.

     I finally stopped there one day out of curiosity  about they could still be in business. Now, I wouldn’t buy fish anywhere else. Aha!, you say, so lousy signs work. Actually, I think of it more that they lost my weekly business for three years; that’s a long time to court a prospective customer. 

     Your sign is your face. 

     How many days would you go without checking out your face in a mirror? Why would you not look at your own sign for weeks on end? In today’s economy, it’s not a good idea to have a less than perfect sign showing for even 24 hours! An ineffective sign is a sign of an ineffective business… yes, even in your basement, attic, or garage!           

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