Can Surveys Help You Delight Your Customers

July 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment

This article is an excerpt from Jamie Walters’ book — Big Vision, Small Business: The Four Keys to Finding Success & Satisfaction as a Lifestyle Entrepreneur.

Many companies, large and small, conduct periodic surveys with clients to ensure satisfaction. Surveys can be valuable, but the effectiveness depends largely on the quality of the questions and the listening skills of the interviewer. In some cases, as with written multiple-choice surveys, there is no opportunity for personal interaction or to ask clarifying and probing questions, reducing the value of the data gleaned. While quantitative surveys are certainly useful when statistical data is your goal, qualitative surveys are far more effective for a relationship-driven business intent upon truly guaranteeing client satisfaction and using the data gleaned to improve customer-interaction practices.

While writing this chapter, I received an electronic newsletter featuring a sample customer-satisfaction survey readers could use to "delight customers." The seven-question survey included measures such as "Rate the quality of our customer care" and "To what extent would you recommend our services." This particular survey was a good example of how such an effort can skim the surface by using vague language and yes-or-no questions, and miss excellent opportunities for deepening the relationship and gaining truly useful information. Why? The survey questions might yield an answer such as "Customer care is fair," but provides no specific details about what, specifically, your company is doing from the customer’s perspective to seem caring or uncaring, or to warrant a referral or not.

It’s easy to catch the Vapid Jargon Disease prevalent in corporate America because it’s so contagious, flowing in a torrent from seemingly wise management and leadership books. One example? The ubiquitous use of "delighting your customer" verbiage. Unless you know exactly what you mean by delighting your customer, and you have information regarding what, specifically, delights your customer — and if, in fact, your customer is delighted (or wants to be) — you won’t be delighting your customers consistently. Rather than talking a mean game about delighting your customers — while that’s certainly a nice thing to want to do — perhaps the more practical and enjoyable goal would be to commit to respectful interactions, consistency, good communication and follow-through, and delivery of the products and services you’ve promised in a manner that’s convenient and satisfying for the customer. A poor survey made up of such superficial questions not only gives you information you can’t act upon, but it wastes your customers’ time — hardly something most would find delightful.

Customer surveys, then, might be more valuable if they contain open-ended questions and an opportunity to delve more deeply into answers to allow you to define what’s most important to the customer and whether the interactions with your company are delivering just that. For example — instead of sending out a multiple-choice survey with questions such as "Did you find your recent experience with us delightful?" or "Was your experience with us fair, good or excellent?" — you might schedule fifteen-minute discussions with customers to find out what they value most about your products and services; what they wouldn’t want you to stop doing; and what’s most important to them when purchasing products and services such as yours. One good way to get constructive criticism that many people avoid is to ask, "If you absolutely had to select at least two things that would have made your experience with us better, what would they be?" That gives you more specific, actionable information than more general surveys.

Once you have that information, you can make whatever adjustments are necessary in your delivery or interaction practices to consistently make customer experiences positive — and be much more likely to "delight" your customers.

WHAT’S YOUR "SQ" (SERVICE QUOTIENT)?

If you really want to refine customer service, use these questions and exercises as a discussion guide to brainstorm improved — and deliberate — ways to "wow" your customers and boost your service quotient.

Exercise: Role play

Ask employees to assume the roles of specific customers speaking with you honestly about your current project. With you playing the part of the project lead or point person, discuss with them the service, interactions, products, etc. that they perceive and receive. Afterwards, discuss what was said, asking pointed questions such as:

How does our organization’s service fare under scrutiny?
Where does our organization rate very highly?
Where is improvement needed?
Where are there missed opportunities to increase the level of service on a regular basis?
What will change — and how — to improve service levels?
How will we feel as a group when we know we’re delivering this refined level of service?
What do we want customers to be able to say about working with us, ideally?
How does this differ from what they’re able to say about working with us now?

Be as specific as possible, offering detailed examples of what "fair service" or "ideal service" look, sound and feel like — for both your group and your customers. Once you’ve done some role-playing as a group, outline a plan for discussing the questions with a selection of current and previous customers. Then come back together as a group to decide how to integrate the feedback in a way that refines your service practices.

Homework: Analyze your survey

If you’ve designed a customer service survey, ask your employees to independently analyze the questions (not the answers) and share their perspective on how to make the survey a more effective tool for your business and your customers. Have employees respond to the following questions anonymously, if necessary, to elicit honest responses (and if they don’t feel able to share honest answers in the group, you might want to put that on your discussion list next!):

In your opinion, what is the purpose and intended result of this survey?
Does the language used represent the company’s personality, mission, and vision?
If you were asked this question about a product- or service-provider that you use, would you be able to answer it accurately? (For example, a true/false question such as, "We delight you" may be too vague to answer true or false.)
What is your opinion about how the survey was presented and framed to the reader?
From the survey alone, what do you believe the company will be able to do with the information that it gathers?
What needs to happen to convert this survey — and its benefit to customers and the company — from a ‘satisfactory’ rating to an ‘excellent’ rating in that the
information it generates will be useful in taking real steps to refine service practices?

Reality check: Recap actions taken

Schedule a meeting with yourself to honestly assess how you and your group are serving customers. Once individual group members have reflected on these questions, add them to the group dialogue list for a spirited discussion. Consider:

What is your rate of repeat and referral business?
Which customers do or would you list as references, which you’d leave off that list, and why?
How much do you know about what your customers want in terms of service? (Don’t make assumptions here; think about actual feedback that you’ve received.)
What service standards have you "made public" (in marketing materials or conversations, for example), and how are you living up to those promises?
How — on a day-to-day basis — do you and your team members demonstrate the level of service that you claim? Be very specific.
How have you remedied an instance of poor service?
What actions do you take to ensure that you’re not becoming complacent about the service that you deliver?
How do you train new employees to meet or exceed your service standard? (Does this training work? How do you know that it works, or doesn’t?)
Do all employees (including executive and management team members) demonstrate your desired level of service — regardless of the amount of contact they have with external clients?
In what ways could you improve service in areas that you, and perhaps even your customers, currently rate as good or excellent? Identify at least two ways to boost it even higher for each category under discussion.

Brainstorm: Discover service boosters

Just as in the case of a vague survey, performing these exercises will not improve your service levels. The exercises will help you identify opportunities for providing extraordinary service — if you take action. With your employees, review the responses to the above exercises and launch into a brainstorming session geared toward developing approaches to improving service. Encourage employees to suggest new methods, shifted responsibilities and additional ‘tools.’ Communicate the agreed-upon actions internally so that your expectations are clear, and follow up with customers, indicating why you’ve made changes and what they can expect from you. You might even adopt an approach used for high performance by other people: Tell your customers about your vision for higher levels of service and let them know some of the actions you’ll be taking to create real refinements in their experience with your company. Once it’s "out there," you’ll feel extra motivation to follow through!

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG

Finding and Keeping Hidden Net Profits in a New Car Dealership Service Department

July 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

By Ray Branch, President and CEO, The KEEPS Corporation

Managing a new car Service Department while producing a 20% Net to Gross Profit ratio is not a simple task. This article will outline one (of about 14) key ingredients that must be in place to truly maximize net profits.

1. Customer Pay Effective Labor Rate Daily Management

First, let’s cover the basics. The Effective Labor Rate (ELR) is defined as “Labor sales dollars collected from the customer divided by the flat rate hours (not clock hours) paid to the technician to get the work/repair done.”

In many service departments around the country it is common to find the customer pay effective labor rate below the stated/door rate by $9.00 to $16.00 and in many cases $20.00 or more below!

The main causes are:

Service consultants discounting labor dollars to compensate for incorrect repair estimates.
Technicians lobbying/negotiating with new or low skilled service consultants for more flat rate time AFTER the customer repair estimate has been presented and agreed upon by the customer.
Service consultants letting customers redeem expired discount coupons that reduce labor dollars by 10 to 15 percent.
Service managers feeling the market pricing pressures from the nearby service providers, therefore discounting labor dollars without adjusting flat rate hours paid to the technicians.
NO effective labor rate monitoring or control system in place for improving ELR.

If , in the course of doing business with a new car dealership, we were to ask the dealer, office manager or service manager, “What is your current customer pay effective labor rate?” You will get somewhere between a “deer in the headlights” look to “It is exactly $72.82 this month.” A lot of service managers can tell you what the number is, but 95 percent of the time NO ONE can tell you what the formula is or how to manage or improve ELR by $9.50 (or more) over the next 30 days.

Effective Labor Rate is one of the most powerful yet allusive business management equations in the service department today.

How to Improve Effective Labor Rate

Move service department pricing and estimating into the 21^st Century by NOT quoting flat rate hours, labor dollars, and parts dollars to repair the car.
Instead switch to “One Price Selling” by giving the customer a total of parts and labor to do the service/repair.
Install several ELR improvement systems in the service department.
A multi level labor pricing system that will charge a small amount of labor dollars more without adding more technician flat rate hours to the service/repair price.
Monitor the Dealer Management System Exceptions Report for discounting by each service consultant.
Meet one-on-one with worst service consultant offender (with repair order examples) showing labor discounts.
Adjust flat rate time on highly discounted service work to off set the labor discounts.
Add $1.50 to $2.50 to several highly discounted services and see what a big jump in ELR you get.

I have only touched the surface of this very complex ELR net profit loss issue. To see the detrimental effect of Low ELR use the following formula for one of your new car dealer accounts.

# of Customer Pay Flat Rate Hours (average

month)

x Difference between last full month ELR and

Current Stated/Door Rate

= “Left-On-The-Table” dollars for one month

x Months in one year

= LOTT Net Profit Dollars for one year

x How many years has this problem existed in

their service department

= You are now getting the picture for the

severity of this problem

If you are scratching your head after reading this brief article, I would consider it a privilege to talk to you at length about how the KEEPS Corporation can help you find and keep a TON of hidden net profits. You can reach me at 1-800-948-9377. Our web site www.keepscorp.com also offers free tools to help Find and Keep Hidden Net Profits in your Service Department.

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG

Advisory board can offer valuable input to small firm

July 28, 2008 | 1 Comment

Dixie Yonkers Special To The Business Review

Getting some outside advice can make the difference between going it alone and going under, or making an idea work. For small businesses, this translates into soliciting advice and guidance from a board of directors or advisors. Some are trying it and finding the results more than worth the effort.

Kathleen Godfrey, sole proprietor of Kathleen Godfrey Financial Planning of Colonie, was in business four years when she heard about the idea of assembling an advisory board. She invited five professionals whom she knew and respected from various fields to serve for one year. They would meet once every two months and listen and comment while she presented her marketing plans and financial statements. In turn, Godfrey committed to donating one-quarter of her net profits at the end of the year to a charity of the advisory group’s choosing.

"When you are on your own, it is so easy to procrastinate, to get sidetracked, so your business isn’t growing the way it could be," Godfrey said. "They gave me someone else to be accountable to. I couldn’t risk losing credibility in the eyes of people I really respected."

That accountability did the trick. Godfrey’s bottom line increased 37 percent in the year since the advisory group began. On May 9, she handed a check for $2,500 to the Legal Project, a nonprofit group that assists victims of domestic violence.

"It’s been a wonderful experience," she said. "I get a lot of good ideas from the group. They’ve seen potential problems before they actually became problems or [have] seen things from another angle."

Godfrey has made it easy for the group to help her, said David Rollins, marketing manager for Plug Power Inc. of Latham, a member of the advisory group. "It has served a great purpose for her. Not wanting to waste the group’s time or embarrass herself has been the glue that holds it together," he said.

While it has been difficult to report her progress at times, Godfrey said the group has helped her to view herself more objectively.

"You have to be able to be a critic of your own business," she said.

Rich Bollam, a partner in Bollam Sheedy Torani & Co. LLP CPAs in Colonie, also has seen the value of outside advice. While his firm has not established a standing advisory board, it has on three occasions invited advice. Eight to 10 of the firm’s most valued clients came together for three hours to respond to a prepared agenda. No executives from the firm were present, said Bollam, just the clients and a tape recorder.

"The idea is to get some good clients in a room and get a high-quality information exchange," he said. With no company employees present, the conversation is candid and objective.

Though the investment is nominal, the feedback is very valuable, Bollam said. The firm has found out what it does well and what clients would like it to do in addition. It has gotten leads for potential new clients and direction for future marketing. The client advisory boards have also helped spread the word about the quality services the firm does offer.

Bollam Sheedy’s client advisory boards have met about once every two years, he said. The firm has arranged one meeting for a client’s firm as well, and would like to offer this type of service more.

"To me, with very little effort and a little organization, you can get a lot of low-cost information from folks around town," Bollam said. "Anybody should do it," he said. "It’s almost like, `Should I plan?’ Everybody should plan."

Still another take on the use of outside boards is that of Taconic Farms Inc., breeders of laboratory rats and mice in Germantown. Though the company has recently grown past the small-business category, it has remained a family-run business for the past 49 years. From its earliest, even as a very small company, an outside board of directors was in place. Now, with three brothers collectively running the business and their mother chairing the board, that board continues to provide accountability and expertise.

It has been important not to have those who run the company on the board, said Joseph Phelan, co-owner of Taconic Farms with his brothers Sam and Richard.

The Taconic Farms board consists of six members, some of whom have served for many years. They bring business, legal and financial expertise, as well as technical expertise in veterinary pathology and nutrition, to the company’s decisions, Phelan said. The board meets twice a year, and individual members are called upon between meetings as needed.

Getting the three brothers to agree can be difficult at times, said Phelan, and then there’s the board to answer to. Phelan said his mother, now in her 80s, is just now figuring out that her sons have a pretty good idea of how to run a business.

That family dynamic that Taconic has somehow been able to keep positive is often the weak link, said Stanley Simkins, president of Menands-based Management Advisory Group and director of the Siena College Family Business Institute. Small or family-run businesses often make the mistake of putting inside people on the board. The board then fails to give objective advice.

"The idea behind a board of directors or advisory board is to get accountable, objective expertise, structure and discipline," Simkins said. "But if the implementation is to bring in your buddies, what have you gained?"

Though advisory boards and boards of directors can be a valuable thing to a small business, it matters how they are established and run. In Simkins’ view, it is a rare small company that has done it well.

Simkins’ word to the wise is, "Proceed with caution."

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG

Guidelines And Checklist For Creating A News Release

July 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment

News releases remain a common tool for organizations to make a public statement through the media and business community.

Newsrooms receive hundreds of story ideas each week. Here’s a simple check list to make sure your news release will stand out in the crowd…

Find a "newshook". Ask yourself "Is this news?" Your news release will get better pick up if you develop a strong newshook, create a human interest element, or relate the news release to an industry trend or national or international event.
Create a great headline, one that hits the heart of the story. If the headline doesn’t grab the news editor or reporter it is less likely that he or she will go on to read the body of the news release. Remember that in a busy newsroom you are competing for the editor’s or reporter’s attention. And, in the financial community, traders and analysts are often trading on headlines as they appear on the screen. An effective headline always includes the organization’s name, gives a sense of immediacy by using the present tense, uses active verbs and plain conversational words to clearly communicate the nature of the story.
Answer the eight W’s. The initial five (who, what, why, when, where) should be captured in an interesting opening statement of 25 words or less. The remaining three W’s should be answered in the second paragraph. They are: Who wins, Who loses and Who cares. A good reporter will be asking themselves these questions so it’s in your best interest to answer these questions for them.
Don’t spin a bad news story. Always tell the real story, even if it’s bad news. The media will be less likely to trust your organization in the future if a news release tries to hide the bad news at the end of the news release. Be proactive and explain why the bad news is happening and what the organization is doing about it.
Contact information. You must provide sound contact information if you want the media to react to your news release. That includes: contact name(s) - meaning someone who can respond directly and immediately to the media or who can immediately arrange a media interview; daytime and after hours telephone number; e-mail address; and, the organization’s web site. Make sure the contact person is available and ready to respond.
Once you’ve sent the news release, follow up with a call. Call the assignment desk, business editor or beat reporter. A thorough follow up will let the media know the story is important and will help you build stronger relationships with key writers and producers.

Remember to be yourself but don’t talk about yourself to much. Focus on the story and fulfilling the need of the News Organization.

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG

Can You Write a Telemarketing Script

July 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Most people answer this question with an immediate "YES", until they actually sit down and try to write a script. It appears easy to write a script… when you first think about it. However, when it comes down to developing the actual strategy, positioning, subtleties, interaction, closing, and formatting (not to mention the objections and rebuttals), the ease of scriptwriting turns more complex than first anticipated.

Here are some things to ask yourself before you definitively answer the question: Can I write a telemarketing script?

Do you have the marketing "know-how" to keep people on the phone from the outset of the call?
Do you know how to incorporate "interaction" into the script so that it doesn’t sound forced and prospects will provide an honest response? And will this interaction lead them to a "yes"?
Can you "close" the prospect with such subtlety that they know they’re buying a product or service (or setting up an appointment) and yet you haven’t broken the flow of the call?
Can you format the script so that it reads easily (hyperlinks, correct succession of Presentation, Explanations, QTC, etc) and flow is not broken?
Do you know how to position your product or service so that prospects see it differently from all similar products and services?
These are only a few of the questions to ask yourself before trying to write your own script. There are many others, but if you answered yes to at least 3 of these, you’re on your way to a great script.

After you have decided that you can write a telemarketing script you need to put yourself in the mindset of your customer and focus on their needs not your product. Your product will come naturally after they believe that you can solve their problem. The most important thing out of the gate it to get their attention so that you can release the distraction, or anger or whatever they might feel when you call. I have been calling on CEO’s for a couple of months because of some partnership deals I am working on for a client and right from the beginning I stress that we are looking for a mutually beneficial relationship. I have had not one hang-up or angry "who are you?". They have all said "tell me more about what you mean" or "what exactly do you mean."

I then educate them on how I think we can help each other do what we do best and be more successful while making higher profits at the same time. If you are calling on a customer it is the same way. Instead of saying, "I am mike selling car wash equipment." you would say something like "How would you like to wash your car once a month and have it look showroom clean the whole month?" That gives you a way in to give more information about how your product is going to fulfill their need.

They may ask "how that would work", or "are you kidding"…anything that gives you an opportunity to get a step closer to allowing them to buy your product is what you want. I was in a business group that we go to each month where a a sales guy in the group said he started saying, "This is a sales call do you want to hang up?" At first we all laughed, but then he started talking about having a very high success rate. Why it may sound crazy it is another way to snap the person out of their daze long enough to listen. He would always follow that up with fulfilling their need. How would you like to make more money next week or whatever that may be. Below I have provided a simple telemarketing script to show you how it works.

This is an example of Cold Calling For Partnership

Gate Keeper

Hello ABC Company, Lynn Speaking

Yes my name is Jim Wilson President of Jim Wilson Enterprises, I was wondering who I would speak to in your company about your products, services, and partnership opportunities.

Hmmm. What type of business are you again?

Lynn, we specialize in software control systems for ABC. I believe our products would enhance your product offering and increase your profit.

You Know I think the best person to speak to would be our CEO his name is Big Bob. Let me put your call through. He may be out of the office.

Thank you so much Lynn for your time. I appreciate your help, have a wonderful afternoon.

CEO

This is Bob

Good Afternoon Bob my name is Jim Wilson President of Wilson Enterprises. Lynn thought I should speak to you about how my products may enhance your service offering and increase your profits.

So what does your company do exactly?

Bob we specialize in software control systems for ABC that your product directly connects to.

Well we are in the hardware business, we don’t do software.

That is correct Bob, but there are companies out their that make millions of dollars connecting to your system. Wouldn’t you like to have part of that money in your pocket for not much more work.

Hmmm. well how do you fit into that picture.

Well Bob, we have been in the software business for a long time and want to continue to specialize in what we do. We believe that being successful requires focus and finding partners that do the parts of our business that we don’t love. We love what we do but don’t love what you are great at. From our research you already have a very successful sales team and support staff. They are considered world class in our industry. We are considered world class in the control systems we develop but are heavily leveraged with engineers. This causes us to waste valuable research and implementation time calling on the same customers that you call on for different products that connect together. Imagine how much money can be made when you control the hardware and software of a system.

You know, what you are saying makes a little sense. You want to focus on software and R&D which is your expertise. We currently are researching ways to grow as well and how to utilize or sales and support staff more.

The benefit we get by working together is being able to both do what we are good at while at the same time decreasing our turnaround times and sales cycles. This will allow both of us to increase our profits and utilize our resources better. We will also be able to act faster than our competition who has to manage two full companies. I know of one of your competitors looking to build an enterprise system like I am talking about right now.

Let me get some time on my schedule so we can meet and discus the possible revenue from a partnership. We are in the acquisition process right now to grow our business. Are you only looking for partnerships or acquisition as well?

We are looking for a mutually beneficial relationship with a company that has the same values that we do and eye for success. We are always open to all discussions. I will work with your assistant to schedule a date.

Ok, look forward to speaking with you in person.

The main idea is to get in person for this example. When you meet you want to be to the point, have all of your facts together, including the numbers you expect the partnership to generate. Always talk about partnership and mutually beneficial and mean it. Never come from only I need this or I only care about this. It will put people off and ruin a quick in that you got from your call. Please remember that in small business you have a chance to get the CEO or president much easier than you do in Fortune 500. You may have several gatekeepers in Fortune 500. Remember to be nice and respectful of each one you meet whether they are a manager or an admin.

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG

Top 5 Reasons We Work Mainly With Baby Boomers

July 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Baby Boomers have done a lot of wonderful things over the years and some could argue not so wonderful things. Because of this great divergence between what Boomers have done and not done, we get lots of questions dealing with why most of our clients are Boomers. Especially since we are Gen-X (the ones that created this new uncertain technological scary world for them.). Well to put it simply, I believe we understand each other better. Now maybe it is because my wife and I were raised like adults, primarily by our Mothers or maybe we are reincarnated old people or something. Either way we have a connection with the view they currently hold of the world and how they fit into it. We feel a sense of knowing that comes with age and experience of what does and doesn’t matter in business and life. To keep up my tradition of top 5 lists I have the top 5 reasons why we love our Boomers.

Top 5 Reasons We Work Mainly With Baby Boomers

Clarity of Vision - The Baby Boomers have reached a point in their life where there is more time behind them than in front. This causes them to become impatient for change and get a sense of urgency around their work. Whether they are looking to sell a business, grow a business before they retire, or create a life they wanted all along, you need clarity of vision to make the right choices. For us clarity of visions is a great thing because it moves the coaching process along much faster than groups of people who think they have forever to do something.
Willingness to Let Go - Baby Boomers are also at a point where they have placed a value on their life, their persona, and intellectual property. They have decided at what point something is worth it or not. They are not afraid to make a stand on values. I worked with one client on a partnership agreement for their business where we were able to hold strong and get what was fair. We were able to do this because my boomer client was like, "Hey, for that price, I would rather throw my life’s work in the trash!" It is hard for a potential buyer to low ball you when you are willing to throw it away just to prove a point. Especially if it is an asset they really want. This is the complete opposite of what I see with many younger people in business. They will take whatever they can get, and come from a place of weakness. Not a good place to be when you are trying to get your business a fair deal.
Open to any and all answers - Baby Boomers are open to all kinds of guidance and open to change their mind. I feel more open than ever in talking with our Baby Boomer clients no matter what it is about. I find that we do not have to edit ourselves, pull out silly charts, outdated data, and so on. We can have instincts, hunches, and intuition drive how we are feeling, and the decisions we make. Decisions that are right more often than not. I have had clients tell me information they received from a healer, a psychic, you name it. All I can say is when you are open with your clients and they are open with you about where their ideas are coming from, you would be amazed how much faster you reach a goal.
They Pay On Time - This may sound like a silly one to have on my list but it is actually one of the most important when you run a small business. Our Baby Boomer clients happily pay on time when they are invoiced. The do not question our value, our work, or our intentions. This makes you work harder than ever to help them achieve their dreams. I have had other groups slow pay and even never pay. Even when a Boomer client has gone out of business because of illness or something we would 99% of the time receive a nice note with a check apologizing for the slow pay and thanking us for helping them on their journey.
Family - This last point is the most important. All of our Baby Boomer clients care about us as people. They care about our lives, our son, our health and our success. They care just as much about us as a vendor as we do them as a client. Many of our clients have been with us from the very beginning for this very reason. They are our family and our friends.

If you have any questions, stories of work with Boomers, or know someone that could use a company like ours feel free to email us.

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under An Executive with Heart, Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG

Make Marketing to Women Fun: Be Creative and Innovative

July 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Written by Gerry Myers, CEO and President of Advisory Link

Connecting to the female consumer is not easy, because there is no one magical way to target women. They are a diverse group, and in many ways it is harder to reach them than their male counterparts. If you have designed marketing plans designed to attract women consumers that have been unsuccessful, you need to try something new.

Women tend to be very family oriented. Programs and events that include kids or the whole family are important to them. However, because mothers are usually juggling several things at once, they have very little time for themselves. Getting away for just "me" is something all women want at one time or another, but they have to have a good reason to fit it into their busy schedules without feeling guilty.

Spend time brainstorming with some of your key customers and get some fresh new ideas that would re-energize both your employees and customers. In the meantime, here are some ideas to get you started.

Events and Giveaways With a Twist

To set yourself apart, look at what would compliment and appeal to your specific customers. For instance, if you are a fitness facility, perhaps you can have a chef demonstrate healthy, quick, but tasty dishes and provide recipes. Women always love chocolate. You could have an event that not only has decadent chocolate treats, but someone to discuss the health benefits as well.

A mall’s success depends on traffic and sales. You can create events with local pro sports team’s wives to do a fashion show in the mall court area, with outfits and accessories from various stores. They can be paid half their fee in cash and half in “mall currency”—a way to entice the celebrity models to return and shop at the mall. And, there are four seasons with different sports for a total year-round program. An added bonus is that many of the models famous husbands and children will attend the events. The crowd will love having the local sports personalities in the audience.

If your business is a home furnishings or home improvements store, perhaps giving away a shopping spree at The Container Store, a closet makeover that includes built-ins, or other organizational items would be of interest to your targeted customers. Additionally, you can have a contest or drawing for a year’s free housekeeping services.

If you are a car dealership, your twist might be to bring women into the facility for things other than automotive-related sales or educational events. While programs like a car-care clinic and classes on buying versus leasing are good, they are common and won’t differentiate you from the competition. To do that, you might consider having a local or well-know artist, author, or journalist speak on a topic of interest to women. If you are a luxury brand, you might want to do a joint event with an expensive jeweler. By partnering, you lessen your financial investment and increase your invitee list..

If you are looking for different door prizes, consider a car service that would transport the kids to baseball practices or orthodontic appointments.

Many organizations focus on women’s trips, some to beautiful spas, others to more adventurous destinations. Perhaps giving that kind of a trip away, rather than the standard couple trip, would strike an accord with some of your female customers. Pampering is always appreciated. Anything that makes her life easier or reduces stress will be appealing.

If you are spending a lot of time and dollars, make sure your event is distinctive or a signature event people will associate with you. For instance, when I was handling PR for the Town of Addison, we created its first fireworks display for Independence Day. The twist we initiated was Addison held a Fourth on the Third celebration rather than compete with well-established shows in our area. Today, 20 years later, the fireworks are still done on July 3 and have one of the largest turnouts in the country. Addison achieved its goal of bringing people to the community to have fun and spend money with its merchants.

Lastly, have fun. If you do, your employee’s and customers will have fun as well and want to be associated and do business with you.

Gerry Myers is CEO, president and co-founder of Advisory Link. Myers is also the former owner and president of the Myers Group, which she founded in 1980. For nearly 15 years, from the early nineties until 2005, the Myers Group specialized in marketing and selling more effectively to the female consumer, as well as helping corporations recruit and retain more women employees. Myers, a pioneer in the women’s market and the first author to publish a book on the subject in 1994, was instrumental in creating awareness, training programs, keynote speeches and consulting services that helped nationally and internationally companies, including many in the automotive and financial arenas. Learn more about Gerry and Advisory Link at www.advisorylink-dfw.com

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG

July 21st 2008

July 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment

When I was a senior in high school, I took creative writing. I enjoyed it, but I had no interest in submitting my work to be ‘judged.’ I wrote because I loved to write and create.

The high school I attended was located right around the corner from Texas Christian University. After I didn’t enter one of my short stories for another local contest, my creative writing teacher told me I had to enter TCU’s writing contest or he would lower my grade. There I was at 4:56 pm on the day of the deadline running up the massive campus sidewalk toward the building where the submission was due at five.

As I ran I thought about how mad I was at Mr. Reed. I didn’t want to enter this contest! He had no right to make me! I looked down at the paper that had pasted pieces of my story from our high school magazine. I didn’t even bother to re-type it to make it look nice. ‘I’ll show him!’ I thought.

A few months later, word came in a fairly plain envelope. No fanfare about what was inside that placed me as the first place winner of the high school writing contest… Just a copy of the entries from that year with my name at the top of the page.

This past weekend, I attended another writing workshop at TCU, and it’s funny how 23 years will help you ‘see’ what your creative writing teacher was trying to get you to see all along.

What I know about marketing and people who are marketing is that the client can see things you can’t see. Whatever it is you don’t want them to see you can bet they will.

Who can help you see what you can’t see?

Hugs-

Tina

P.S. We all have the ability to see things for others we can’t see for ourselves. How can you help other people see what they can’t see? Can you do this in a way that gently guides them to be better?

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Full Marketing BLOG, Notes From Marketing Expert Tina Ferguson

Release Your Business Achiever With A Brain Dump

July 19, 2008 | 1 Comment

If you find yourself unable to get clarity in your business, please don’t feel like you are alone. Many entrepreneur have this issue; with all that is required to run your own company as well as try and have a personal life and family. When we find ourselves stuck in the trap of endless things that need to be done and to do lists that don’t get done, we pull out our own executive coaching brain dump exercise and get to work. After a short while using this exercise we are back on track and marching ahead in our business.

Business Achiever Brain Dump Exercise

First things, first. To begin to move toward what we most want, we must move to a place where we have balance in our life. The very first component of reaching balance is clearing the mental busy-ness present. From shopping lists to well-intentioned ‘to-dos’, the mind is a great clearing ground.

To begin the brain dump process, print the page and use the lines provided below to list all the things that are on your mind. For each item, note whether the thought of doing it is welcome (+), not welcome (-) or neither (=). You will need to tune into your body and quickly note what you feel when you either read it or say it aloud. This should not take more than a few minutes total for the entire list. Go with your first feeling and do not judge these feelings. This is your body’s way of showing you what you naturally want to do or don’t want to do in your life and business.

Keep in mind that each item on your brain dump list represents an energy + (bonus), energy – (drain) or energy = (neutral). For instance, sending a note to a friend just because you are thinking of her can be an energy +, and even though the note isn’t likely to be a priority, you get an added bonus of more energy to accomplish more items on your list.

Energy Strategy: If you have a hard time getting started on accomplishing items on your list, choose three energy + items then move on to energy – items or energy = items.

EXERCISE

This exercise will infuse you with energy! After you complete listing your items, for the next week, work through your list. Notice which items are the hardest to start/complete, and list each here with notes about the thoughts that come to your mind before attempting to do it. Do not judge your inaction, simply notice what arises when you think of taking action. Acknowledge those items you do complete by crossing them out with a large, wide-tipped marker:

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, have fun and get your business moving.

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG

The Ultimate Sales Tool – Implement it Today

July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Written by Debbie Mrazek

A multi-level office building could probably be filled with all of the books available on improving sales communication. While it may be a topic that has gotten a lot of press, I can assure you that when it comes to sales professionals, there’s still a lot of room for improvement by the vast majority.

You might think that talking and listening is quite basic and elementary. But let me tell you – it isn’t. If it was, there would be more sales pros hitting those top numbers. Sadly, they aren’t. Even in this day and age 90% of sales are created by only 10% of the sales people. Imagine what your business would like if you helped 10% more of your sales people reach into top-performer status!

To be successful in sales, you, as the professional salesperson must master three major components of communication:

Listening to customers, including watching for body language
Questioning and listening to find out what they want and what their concerns are
Establishing the connection between their needs and your products and services

Number one deals with really getting to know your customer. Are they being ‘polite’ and just listening for no reason? What are they really saying? What is their body language? Are they crossing their arms? Are they leaning in? Are they interacting? Are they not? Communication is what is spoken and also what is unspoken.

Number two is all about the customer. What do they want? What’s going on in their world? What do they really need? When you really listen and ask questions to seek first to understand your customers’ concerns and issues, then, and only then do you get the chance to sell. It’s not about muscling your way through the door and then blurting out your presentation as fast as you can. It’s about building a relationship that will pay you over and over again.

Finally, number three is about building a bridge between the customer and your company (and yourself). It’s about building upon a strong foundation of trust and earned respect. At this point, you aren’t just pitching a product and hoping it will stick, you are tying the needs to your prospective customer to what your company provides or offers. It is also about not pitching something that will not serve the prospect. Often, walking away from a sales opportunity will act like a boomerang to get another opportunity when that prospect refers you to another company that may be a better fit. Never be afraid of walking away from a deal that will not ultimately serve your prospective customer.

Sales communications begin with you, but it is not all about you. Sales communication is about hearing your customer. What is the customer’s biggest concern and fear? How can you help? You are there to begin to understand how that customer may be served by you and your company and to earn that opportunity. If you get this piece right, you will master one of the most important pieces of the sales pro puzzle.

Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG, Sales

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July 21st 2008

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