How to Run the Pefect Business.

Hello Again... Grab the phone!

2007-12-02T11:18:00.001-08:00

I am still here. I opened a new company and have been a little busy since my last post. My new business is the reason I am writing today. I decided to go back to my roots. I am dabbling in telemarketing and auto dialer campaigns.

Most people frown upon those types of advertising techniques and I would agree. There are some negatives to them for sure, but the positives far outweigh them.

1. Market to people outside your market - The cost of phone calls now with VOIP (Internet Phones) is almost nothing. You can use computers to do the calling for you. When the cost is so low what is the down side?

2. Statistics - Have you ever been telemarketed or had a computer call you to do a political poll? Did you hang up? OK, Now think about 100 people being called in one minute. How many do you think stay on the phone? Not enough? OK, now picture 1000 people - Then 10,000 - I think you get the point now. With the possibility of reaching 100,000 households in one day, your percentages do not have be that high to make an impression.

3. Technology - Answering machines and voicemail - Think of all the people not home during the day. Most computer dialer's have the ability to leave a "customized" message for people when their answering machine takes the call. Yes - A lot of people will delete the messages immediately, but some won't. Some people will here your message and think "Hey, I really need that right now."

4. Out Sourcing - Take advantage of companies overseas. They have the ability to do telemarketing and dialing at extremely competitive rates. Most of the time if you find the right company they can do cheaper then you doing it yourself. (Contact me and I can refer you to a good company)

Bottom-line, be more open minded in your marketing ideas. Just because you don't like something - that doesn't mean other people won't react to it. Especially if you have the ability to sell your product or service all over the country. People in different areas of the country react differently to things then you may think.

Well, that's it for now. See you again soon.

Tell your customer how it is and be nice!

2007-05-16T00:54:00.000-07:00

Question: How do you maintain a high level of customer service and maintain the ability to do everything needed to hit all of the goals/needs a customer demands from you?

Answer: First off – I hope I did not butcher the question. I think this is what you had in mind. Now to the question itself.

Every customer you deal with has different wants. I think before you try to make everyone of them come true and maintain a sparkling personality along the way you need to not just read or be told what a customer needs, but actually speak with your customer about it. Now depending on what type of customer you are talking about there are different ways to do this. If you own a restaurant you may want to use a comment card. If it is service related business, you might want to follow up a transaction a couple days later with a customer service phone call. I know you are thinking, “That is common sense, everyone knows that”. You are right, it is common sense. You should know that, but what most people do not know is what type of questions you should ask or address with your customer.

Restaurants – I love when the chef comes out from the kitchen a few times a night and walks up to your table. First of all he is dressed as a chef. That means the whole white outfit and the fluffy hat. You may not think a chef is all that intimidating, but they are. They are not only all white with a fluffy head, but they have a strange power that is hard to confront. They have the power to spit in your food. Now, back to the chef approaching the table - The chef slowly approaches you to give you enough time to get your story straight, then he asks the most difficult question in the world to give a negative answer to. “How is everything tonight?” – You think for a minute of the horrible parking situation out front, the rude hostess that sat you and the bus boy that took too long to refill your water. You look up at the fluffy chef and say. “Everything was perfect, thank you.” The only time you tell the chef something is wrong is if you are really pissed. Not slightly upset or a little riffed, but 100% pissed. Other than that you do not have the guts. You are still thinking you might order the creme Brule’ so you better play it safe.

Survey Cards – When you get a survey card in the mail or handed to you – Your natural instinct is to do one of a few things. You give them perfect all the way down. That means you either had a great time or you are a complete wimp. You give them all bad scores. That means you really had a bad experience or you are a jerk. Few people ever read each question carefully and answer them honestly. Make the cards easy, but thought provoking ask specific and general questions. Ask about the water service or the parking as well as the general overall quality of the food. Also, give people incentive to be honest. Give free dessert, discount on the bill or validate their parking – Anything to get some honesty out of the customer.

Oral Surveys – Pay a company, use a friend or fake a voice and call your previous and existing customers. Find out what they like or didn’t like. What worked for them and what did not. What they want you change and what they loved about you. Pull it out of them and try your best to read between the lines and get some honesty. Remember – this is not for a million dollar marketing study. This is to find out how to satisfy your customers best you can.

Now remember through all of these ways you are communicating and analyzing your customers experiences, make sure you ask the most important question. What is most important to you as a customer? What do you have to do for them in order to keep them as a client? Now you have that info – You go to step two.

Step two is very complicated for most to do, but the easiest part in my opinion. Step two is honesty. Tell your customer the truth. Tell them that if they want thing done in one hour there will be less efficiency and more errors, but if they give you 3 hours you can guarantee high level of work. It does not matter what you do or who you do it for, everything takes time. You will see the more honest you are with your customer the happier they will be, even if your honesty is telling them bad news. Educate your customer on what is important to them. Make sure they understand the down side of every favor and adjustment a customer may ask of you. Maybe the downside will eliminate their desire to do things differently. Make the businesses you work with pull the trigger on all decisions that will negatively affect other parts or any part of the company. You would be very surprised how many customers will begin to eliminate poor decisions when they are told what the effects of these decisions are.

Bottom line – if you deliver for your customers they will remember you. In the end, people want the job done right.

Recap – Find out what your customer really wants and/or needs. Once you find out give them honesty and tell them the best way you can get them to that point. Be strong, honest and communicate thoroughly and often.

I hope I covered your question appropriately. You have to remember you are an expert at your business make sure your customer knows that. You are the best source of info for your customers. Get them to understand the way you do things and how you feel those ways help the customer in the end.

Small Business = Small Budget

2007-05-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

Question:

I have a small marketing budget for my business (small neighborhood business) What do you suggest I can do to let people in my area know that my business exists and to start using it?

Suggestion:

This is the #1 question asked by small businesses. If you gave me a little more detail about your business I could make this response cater a little more to you, but I will give you a few ideas for this very popular question.

First, always remember that the largest cost in any marketing campaign is people cost. So, if you are willing to do the grunt work yourself you can make a small business budget go up a couple of notches.

Now, I need a couple of examples. Let's assume you are marketing a local retail business. It doesn't matter if it is a restaurant - clothing store or arcade. As long as we are talking about a store where your market is local.

Ideas: Door hangers, Business Cards/Flyer's, "New Home Signs", Referral Sources, Business Discounts, Local Schools and/or Organizations and BONUS IDEA!!!

Door Hangers - Use two sided printing. Take advantage of the opportunity you have when you get an ad in front of someone. Do not slap print all over over the page, but don't leave too much blank space either. If you are targeting an area with Hispanic consumers make sure to make your ads bilingual. That is a great use for the second side of a door hanger. The uniqueness of door hangers over direct mail is very simple. Door hangers must be grabbed by the home owner and are usually brought into the house. Therefore it has a chance to be viewed by multiple people. Mail on the other hand is usually the job of one person in the household to go through and throw out the advertisements. Very rarely is mail kept and distributed through the household.

Business Cards/Flyer's - People may think that printing business cards and flyer's are mundane acts and useless in the general success of your business and I 100% agree. MOST people make them useless as opposed to using theses simple forms of advertising in their benefit. Distribute your business card whenever possible. Not just to people, but anywhere you see advertising stacking up. There is a reason that people stack meaningless advertising in hair salons, fast food restaurants and gyms, it is because other people look at it. Always have cards available to you - They will always be your least expense form of advertising.

"New Home Signs" - Do not let new homes capitalize the market for annoying little signs on the side of every major road you head down. Those signs are relatively cheap to print and the repetition of people driving up and down the same street can turn a casual driver into a future customer. If you use a website for attracting business, this is a great way to advertise the site.

Referral Sources - Use other businesses as referral sources for yourself. Don;t be afraid to go into other businesses in your area and sit with the owner or manager to see how you can help each other out. Make sure you figure out a way you will be helpful to them as well, so it doesn't seem like a one way relationship. Also, it doesn't matter what type of business neighbor you have - I once set up a barber shop with a mortgage company and it made for a very good relationship.

Business Discounts - Put together a Business Partner campaign. Nothing fancy, just put together a discount or benefit list for people that work in the surrounding area to use your business. Businesses are usually easy when it comes to giving their employees something for free. If you can give away a initial gift or trinket always do. People always love free things. The reason for doing it for people in your surrounding area is it will be very easy for you to go business to business and pitch this FREE benefit to your neighbors if it is really near your business. You can use this plan for any business not just neighboring businesses, but the closer they are the less as you spend driving to them.

Local Schools and/or Organizations - Keep up with what is going on in your neighborhood - Walk into your schools and look for ways to donate time and/or money for a little advertising for your business. It is usually very inexpensive and always effective. If you have children use their schools first and you won;t feel so slimy. Once you get over that feeling hit up all the schools, clubs, non profits and organizations you can think of. Remember if you want to survive and thrive you must understand that every opportunity to get your business out there must be taken. This is not a hobby it is a business.

BONUS IDEAS - Here are 3 quick ideas for you to try if they fit your current situation.

1 - Starbucks!!! Walk into a Starbucks near your business (There HAS to be at least 1) and offer everyone in the building a free Starbucks gift card. Buy them ahead of time and get label versions of your business card or ad for business on one side of the Starbucks card. Hand these gift cards out to everyone inside the coffee shop and make sure to say as many thank yous as you can. Do not leave after you do this. Sit down and enjoy a coffee. People will come up to you and thank you - Now is the time to talk up your company. Practice and don't screw up. It is like a date, you only get one first impression.

2 - DMV / Government Buildings - Go early about 15 minutes before they open and hand out bottles of water with your card or little cups of coffee (Depending on the weather). People waiting in the line will never forget it.

3 - Yard Sales - Go to your local neighborhood association and roll out your new plan. You have a Yard Sale in a box. A Table, Chairs, Cash Box, Calculator, Receipt Book and Yard Sale signs, these items are everything needed for a successful yard sale. Put the signs out early and make sure that there is a stack of business materials to give out to everyone that stops by. Now if you have the time work the yard sale yourself. If you don't make sure to push the homeowner to mention who sponsored your yard sale. Make sure to have a sign there to represent you in case they forget. It costs thousands to put your name on a billboard, even more to put your name in a commercial and millions to sponsor a Nextel race. It costs less than a 100 dollars to sponsor a yard sale that targets the local people that you want to come into your business.

There are hundreds of more ideas that I can give you for this type of business, but the biggest thing you must remember about advertising is it is just like a diet. There are a 100 different weighs to lose weight, but if you do not follow one religiously it won't work. That is the same for marketing your business. If you try something for a couple days an expect to see huge changes you are fooling yourself. Consistency following through with a variety of ideas will show you what works and what doesn't.

IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD - MAKE SURE TO COMMENT!!! SHARE IDEAS - THAT IS HOW WE LEARN.

- NEXT TIME - Why record all your marketing data and what do you do with it?

Learn from the experiences around you.

2006-09-05T23:39:00.000-07:00

Most people today have little idea of how or what to do to start their own business. I did not create this blog to help those types of people. :)

What I did do is create a forum for people that currently own small to large companies or corporations to get free advice and learn from the tons of knowledge that is out there in the form of experience.

You can pick up a hundred different business self help books that will guide you through the ins and outs of hundreds of different scenarios - Some of them hit your situation right on the head and others fall far short. As this site grows it will become alive with ideas and examples of other people just like you. In business and in the dark.

I will chime in to share my vast experiences with any postings I feel I can contribute to and with my many successes and even more failures I probably will have a lot to chime in on.

I get clouded from time to time - When that happens it is good to use people as a sounding board for the issues that are freezing you where you stand. Use us as that board - We not only serve a good purpose, but we bounce back some good ideas.

Be descriptive with your questions - We may need more info to give you our version of the resolution so make sure you keep your posting regularly.

Good Luck and good Business.