Networking is imperative to business success and growth. Your network can bring you knowledge and skills that you would pay serious money for if you have to hire a consultant. It is also the best way to find strategic partners.

Consider creating a business network / think-tank composed of your immediate business neighborhood. Try to get them all involved in growing the group as a whole and your respective businesses will grow as a result of that.

Try to meet for a business breakfast on a regular basis.
This can be once a week, month, quarter or whatever timeframe you decide. I suggest breakfast because it is a time that is almost never booked for anything else. Another thought is to consider the ones that may have families and children. A Saturday BBQ can be a great think to invite them to and let them bring the families. This will often help your network of small business peoples overcome the “no time for family” problem and do business at the same time.

By doing this, you can share ideas, discuss current issues and come up with joint effort solutions. Sharing the cost of marketing efforts, security, upkeep etc. can be a great relief on the budget.

In “Creating customer value ” I discussed the need to meet expectations. This continues to be the key portion to any customer relationship. The problem is that value is considered to be something on its own. Almost seen as something completely separate, and this is of course asinine at best.

Instead of fixing the product or service to match the promises we make the customer, we add other things to the sale hoping that this will be the value they are looking for. It isn’t and that simply doesn’t work. Unless you are adding something of direct value to the purchase itself, however, that is hardly ever the case.

Although I appreciated the travel coffee-mugs that came with my car; the “value” added to the purchase is negligible. I know that the $0.99 per cup this dealer paid for them is not going to hurt him in the least. Not mentioning that they have the dealership details on them. So now I am supposed to feel that I got value out of becoming their advertiser?

If they had simply put the box in the car, not mentioned it, and left it at that. I would probably had thought more of the gift than them acting like they gave me something really special. It starts to look more like a bad joke when they present a couple of plastic cups with the ceremony of it being the Nobel Prize.

The simple fact is that adding value is not that easy, or even possible. Value is still going to be measured, by the meeting and exceeding of the customers’ expectations. Few customers will equate the value in their purchase with the free gifts that come with it. If you are going to add something to a sale, it has to be of relevance and carry a direct connection to the use and enjoyment of the product or service.

This concept of “adding” value is a disconnect that prevails in sales today. If you own a business, you probably get these 900 page catalogs with everything from branded post-it’s to pens and bottle openers. By all means, use them. Just don’t think that they will be what bring your customers back. These items bring value to you in terms of advertising. Don’t confuse that with them making a difference in your customers’ experiences.

We can pack on coffee mugs, key rings, and other marketing giveaways, and sales / marketing gurus all over are claiming this to be of great value. I think it has a place, but that place is not to cover up our failure to live up to our promises.

Next time someone tries to sell you these items as “marketing” materials, ask them to show you example of conversions, new business brought, customer satisfaction surveys that improved dramatically or any other metric that would prove their often very lofty statements.
These items are only a small addition to what should be your real business.

Meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

When you read an interesting article, see if it applies to any one of your clients or prospects. Not only is this a great way to make sure that you are applying what you are reading at all times, but it also opens up a great way to communicate.

Once you find something that you think, "XX should really read this," you have a great opportunity to make a positive impact in a client’s life. Make a copy of it, and send it with a handwritten note to telling him that you thought of him and why.

"I saw this article and thought about how you mentioned having trouble finding a good outsourcing partner in China." Now you’ve told him that you were paying attention and that you are interested in helping him.

Include your business card and send it off.

The cost in time and energy to do this is negligible, but to Bob this shows that you have his best interests in mind. It also shows him that you are the type of person that provides solutions, and Bob will remember that next time he or someone he knows need something.

I came across a post today from John Jantsch over at Ducttape Marketing called "Staying Top of Mind" that raised some interesting pointers.

He mentions that he got a note from a new employee at a supplier introducing herself. She wasn’t his account rep, and she didn’t try to sell anything. Above all else, the note was handwritten.

John notes how positive his reaction and how the handwritten note is something that has gone the way of the Dodo for most companies. He is right; a handwritten note is the most personal thing you can do that doesn’t involve actual conversation. Not standing out of the crowd by doing something that simple is a missed opportunity.

I often recommend including a short handwritten note when you bill a customer. You can make the whole process of invoicing a part of your marketing strategy. You take the not-so-popular invoice and move it to a communication tool more than a simple "pay me please" transaction.

This also has an additional benefit, if the company is medium sized or larger, chances are that someone other than your contact is dealing with the invoices. Getting a personal note in that envelope means that they are going to be aware of it and it actually lessens the risk of your invoice being lost in the shuffle.

You also gain the benefit of communicating with the customer on a regular basis, you should never go more than three - four weeks (four is the outside) to communicate with your customer, or they will start to lose sight of you. Out of sight, out of mind. Eventually, you’ll be out of a deal too.

In the end, it all comes down to relationships, when you send someone a handwritten note, you are making an effort to be personal, and that effort is hardly ever lost on the recipient. We are getting so used to not being personal and personable that a simple handwritten note now is a way to stand out.

If you can you think of a more low-cost way to maintain and improve the customer relationship, I’d love to hear it.

By the time you have finished reading this sentence, you’ll already be wondering what these mistakes I’m talking about are.

Moreover, there is a high probability you are contemplating whereas there really is a need for writing in a sesquipedalian comportment.

In those two sentences I just illustrated the title.

1. Tell me what you’re selling
Your customers are not stupid, they know you are selling something, and they want to know what it is. Get to the point, do it quick and then go into the explanations and sales copy.

If you hover around, talking about how great you think they are and how fantastic you think their company is for more than a sentence or two. You are already starting to lose readers (translating into losing sales).

You should give them the courtesy of explaining yourself right away, especially when you are writing to a customer that you haven’t done previous business with. If they aren’t interested in what you are selling, they will not read much past the introduction. But if you make the deal the only thing they read, then that is what they will remember, giving you the opportunity of scoring a reference instead when someone asks them about where to buy your particular widget.

Make a statement, explain the offer and invite to read more. This should be the quintessence of a sales letters opening.

2. Speak my language
If you want to sell me something, do me the courtesy of speaking to me in my language. I’ve been to college; I can decipher even Shakespeare when I want to. This is normally not when I’m opening the mail, and especially not when I’m getting lots of it and the weekly sales meeting is going to start in 9 minutes.

When you write the sales letter, Use your voice, it’s more a question of speaking than writing. Check your language by asking yourself if this is how you would speak if you had a customer sitting in the chair across from you.
If it’s not, tune it to become a conversational tone. Most people have busy schedules, and sales letters file so nicely in the circular archive.

If your product or service is so complex that you need a very long letter to explain it, maybe you should consider breaking it down into a shorter letter with a call to action to contact you for more information.

When something is so complex, a personal presentation will almost always be superior to the letter.

Start writing conversational to the point letters. You will see the difference.

Are YOU what is wrong with your company?

The most unpopular thing a consultant can ever say is that the owner is the reason the company is failing to grow. But quite often, this is actually the case. Only most consultants will protect their wallet before they protect the interests of a client by telling them this uncomfortable truth.

An owner starts a small business because they have a passion, and knowledge for doing something. Be it gardening, selling clothes, designing web pages or anything else for that matter. They may very well be an expert at doing just that.

By becoming a small business owner, they quickly have to wear several other hats. Manager, Marketer, Salesman, Accountant, Receptionist, Cleaner; a sole proprietor may have to -and often will - do it all. They become Jacks-of-all-trades, and subsequently masters of none.

Most small business owners consider their business to be their baby. Something they gave birth to and helped grow, watched take its first steps and start moving on its own. Just like a parent, when it is little, you are everything to your baby, and just like a parent, as it grows you can’t be everything anymore. You wouldn’t assume to be your child’s college professors, first boy/girlfriends, best friends, drinking buddies and so forth. That would be more than a little strange.

When the company grows, most small business owners have problems hiring someone to do one of these tasks, and then trusting them to do it right. Growing small businesses are often micromanaged and the employees are going insane being constantly monitored by the well meaning “parent”.

Almost all small business owners end up hiring Accountants, Sales people, and other supporting functions. But almost none get smart enough to do the right thing.

The right thing in this case happens to be to replace yourself.

They don’t hire someone to run the company for them. Pride and a sense of ownership outweigh what is best for the company, effectively stunting its growth. Go back to the parent viewpoint, at some point a parent has to let go and allow others to be the main influence in the child’s life. You let go, and the ones that don’t are seen as overprotective, and people around them scorn their attempts to rule and rein their grown up child.

Yet so few would dare to tell a business owner the time has come when they may no longer know what is best for their “child.” No one seems to think that a business can outgrow the owner’s capacity, when it is in fact one of the major reasons small businesses fail.

If you are a master gardener, you went to school to become the best. You know everything there is about what grass will grow where and why. You started your company with a lawnmower and a pair of hedge clippers. You made it into a company with 4 trucks and teams of gardeners.
You may be a master gardener, but for your company to keep growing, you need a master manager. This is the truth that hurts the most. You are probably not it.

Let me let you in on a little secret, other people went to school to get an MBA, and I will guarantee you that they studied little or nothing about grasses there. Just as you missed out on some very important classes they took, and problems they pondered.

We see it all the time, the more cohesive a profession is, the more you’ll see them promote from within. Educators are a great example; you’ll find almost every executive position in a school being held by someone who has a degree in education or maybe psychology. Yet, it’s been years since they taught a class unless it was for an emergency substitution when a teacher failed to show up.

These people are no longer teachers; they have limited contact with the students at best. Hiring a teacher to be a principal is a gamble, simply because they may or may not have the skills needed. They are now administrators, managers, leaders of other professionals, and their skills are focused on dealing with children and young adults. No wonder they so often treat their staff like children too.

Ever notice how large corporate executives transfer industries without more than a sideline in the news? Telecom to Automaker, Banking to Insurance, this happens all the time. Why? Because at these high levels it’s easier to see that knowing the industry isn’t that important, it is now about business, and the business of running a business.

Small businesses keep falling on the thought that you have to know the industry to be considered for a job managing it. Very few video rental outfits would consider a garbage company manager to be their first pick. But no one would argue with Wayne Huizenga, who started in Waste management and later went to Build Blockbuster. Management and business savvy has nothing to do with the actual industry. It has to do with the person, and just like most people aren’t great gardeners, most gardeners aren’t W. Huizenga.

Passion is what drives a company more than anything, and if your passion is still doing what made you start your company, whether it is gardening or anything else, find someone whose passion is management, leadership, business development, and above all, find the courage to let go of your child into their passionate hands.

If you really want to see your baby grow to its fullest potential. You may have to stop yourself from reaching your highest level of incompetence.

So you want to recession proof your business? You may be considering the ever popular cutback. We are seeing more and more businesses considering cuts - or as it’s so commonly referred to, Reorganizing, streamlining, narrowing your focus, … the euphemisms are many. I call it Chapter 6 Management, because when you are done, you will start Chapter 7.

Here is the prediction - the companies that are successful in implementing cuts early to prepare for the recession, will be the ones that don’t survive it. Why? Because what they are doing is getting rid of the parts that could be their saving grace in a real recession.

They are:
-Reducing their core competencies by cutting staff
-Reducing possible revenue by cutting customers
-Reducing the chance of referrals by cutting customers and/or staff
-Reducing their revenue streams by cutting “dogs” out of their product line

I’ve heard consultants advising clients to get rid of high maintenance accounts and thereby increasing profits. Now this may sound like a good idea. Lose the problem customers and only work with those that are easy and quick to pay. But the problem with this approach is in the long term. You may end up keeping the very customers that fall first in a recession. You can’t control their decisions, and they could be making all the wrong ones. If your customers are the first to fall, I’ll let you guess where you will be going…

Heading into a recession you should be building momentum as much as possible. Chances are that this will be a very long uphill battle. You don’t want to be standing on the breaks or you’ll never get to the top. The onset of a recession is the time to maximize your revenue stream, simply to make sure that your customers are numerous enough for you to survive it. If you have a strong organization with lots of revenue streams, you will actually stand a change of growing in the middle of a recession when your customers fall by the wayside. What little business they shed will be up for grabs as that point.

By the same token, once you are IN a recession, you need to consider where your holes are. Now is the time to recognize, fix and/or get rid of unnecessary expenses. Before you actually get there you have to consider if the expense will pay off in time before you cut it. It could turn into a revenue maker that keeps you alive later. Once the economy is crumbling around you - cut, and cut fast.

You need to pay close attention to your production to catch the ones that are costing you money. Even if they show great potential in a normal or strong economy, you don’t have time in a recession to wait for them to mature into moneymakers. Unless this product or service is bringing you other business that is profitable, or shows great promise of maturing very soon then this is what you should cut. But again, only cut what is costing you, not the items that are breaking even or better, they are bringing business, and business brings more business.

The great thing about living through a recession is that you will have a head start on everyone that tries to start up or get back in after it’s passed.

Go in strong, and come out rolling. Step on the breaks too soon and your competition will thank you for the customers they inherit.

How to get your customers to do the selling for you

Sometimes, what everyone else is doing isn’t necessarily the right thing. Many businesses have fallen into following the leader when it comes to high pressure sales tactics. Trying to keep up by copying their methods. A person that broke this mold is Australian media commentator and motivational speaker, Craig Harper - who also owns a personal training center.

Craig says in this article that he has no marketing budget (note that he doesn’t say he doesn’t do any marketing.. there is a huge difference), he does no hard selling and he has no memberships for his gym. No upfront commitments or high pressure tactics like most of the competition does. He also states that this is against all his marketing connections advice.

But what traditional marketing, and especially the “gym mold” is missing is exactly what Craig has been doing. What so many businesses today have been trying to create is exactly the situation that allows him to be successful. When every big player in the area is doing the same thing, (and in this case that thing is to force the customer to to sign a long term membership that Houdini couldn’t get out of),the simple answer is to do something different…

What’s the key to creating this success?

He DOESN’T SELL! … no hard sales ever. He also does something completely moronic if you were to look at the approach of his competition. He LISTENS !

This part from his article is very telling as to why he is successful.

“I spoke to an older gentleman recently who was interested in being trained by one of my team. I spent twenty minutes with him, had a few laughs and he booked in for three sessions per week.” … “Why did he choose Harper’s? Because he had visited eleven centers (we were number twelve) and I was the first person who listened, didn’t ’sell’ and spent more than two minutes with him. I would have happily spent the time with him no matter what the outcome was. If the first eleven businesses had half a clue, we would never have met.”

Craig has grasped the basics of relationship marketing and turned it into an art. He knows that in his case, just doing what the opposition isn’t doing will go very far in earning him a client. He also knows that in his particular case, a happy and satisfied customer will be the best advertising he can get. In the business of personal training, getting satisfied customers creates more business because it creates a walking, talking advertisement for you.

As Craig puts it

“Get a fat bloke in shape and ten things will happen:”

1. He’ll be a slimmer, healthier, satisfied customer.
2. People will want some of what he’s got.
3. He will sell you and your business (verbally and visually).
4. He will create ‘brand awareness’ for you.
5. You will have more people walk through the door.
6. He will boost your credibility.
7. He’ll bring five of his fat buddies, who in turn will bring fifty of their buddies.. and so on.
8. Your business will grow.
9. You’ll make more money.
10. You’ll buy a boat.

There is an old saying that sales is 90% listening and 10% talking. This is what the Hard Sell promoters out there have been missing. They aim for quantity, not quality. They strive to hit as many customers as possible in order to cover the ones that are ready to buy or prone to be pressured into buying a standard sales pitch. Then move on and find another one. They don’t spend enough time to make sure that the customer is getting what they are looking for. Which is why they lock them down into contracts and payment tricks. Since they don’t care about customer satisfaction, they have to ensure repeat business in other ways. For these businesses, return business is the same as repeat billing.

Do you think their customer satisfaction rating is high or low?

Next time, try to sit down, and actually listen to a customer. Maybe you are not that far away from becoming a Craig Harper, who gets business without spending a fortune in advertising because people want to deal with him, not because they got pressured into a contract they can’t get out of…

Or think about what kind of business you would like to run in terms of taglines.

“Your business” - #1 Because once we get you to sign, we own you!
or
“Your Business” - #1 Because our customers come back for more

If you are currently employing the Hard Sell, trying to lock down your customers into long term contracts, you should ask yourself this.

If I met the customers’ needs and expectations, would I need to enforce ironclad contracts? Possibly ruining dissatisfied customers credit and creating bad will for myself in the process?

I would venture to guess that the answer to that question is No!
I would also dare to guess that in the long term, your business will be growing way past what skinning dissatisfied customers out of can ever accomplish.

Not to mention that you will spend a lot less money on call centers trained in how to tell the customer that they can’t stop doing business with you.

Money that you could actually spend on bringing more first time customers through your doors so that you can listen to them too.

Or you could buy a Boat.

Spring is in the air, summer is almost here and this is the time to start thinking about creating an event that a whole community will see and rally behind. There are hundreds of worthy ideas and causes that you can create a charity event for. And make no mistake about the impact that doing such a thing can have.

This is a tip that takes a little more time and energy than others, but can be a great branding tool for you and your company. It is best suited for small companies with a few employees. But you can also get together with other companies and co-host the event, which is also a great networking opportunity. If you are unable to create your own event, don’t miss an opportunity to sponsor one with either your special skills, or your products.

You will:

- Send a very powerful message of Civic engagement
- Get connected with new people that can function as a future network
- Build new business and strengthen your customer relationships
A few years back I helped a small company organize a soap box derby. The goal was to raise money for a children’s hospital. They had other companies donate necessary items like the safety barriers. They also sold the advertising space on these barriers to advertisers.

Community organizations stepped in and helped with manpower.

The positive community image that resulted was incredible. The company was featured on the front page of the local newspaper three times. State media picked the story up and broadcasted the name of the business and interviewed the owner.

The trick is to ensure that you really are focusing your efforts on the charity or cause that you are supporting. You can and should of course make sure that you use available space to place your logo, but by actually doing something for someone else, media will be much quicker in giving it coverage than they ever will if they assume that you are doing it for the publicity.

Make sure that you craft a strong press release and media package, having this ready for the initial announcement is crucial to make the most out of your coverage.

Event Ideas could include: Soap Box Derby, Outdoor concert, Flea Market, Chili Cook-off, BBQ competition, Movie night in a park, Rubber Duck Race, Raft Race, Golf or Tennis tournament, Bingo Night, Silent Auction. The list is endless.

There is a cheap and simple way to build relationships with a company. The so called little people carry a whole lot more weight than most realize, not to mention utilize.Think of the receptionist at a smaller company for instance. He or she is responsible for “gate keeping”. They screen calls for executives and owners - they stop solicitors from getting appointments, Most importantly, they have their bosses ears most of the time.

Next time you deal with a company, don’t just focus on your target person in there, find out who works around them. These are the people you should take extra care in treating well. Be nice to these people and make sure that you treat them with the same respect you would the executives. You will stand out, and this will improve your chances of getting them to help you in the future, this can be bringing up your name, helping you get in touch with the right person in the company.

If we like someone, we help them. - It’s really that simple.