Cancel your advertising and throw away your leaflets

“Cancel your advertising and throw away your leaflets”

By Karen Skidmore

When people decide to give up on their business and go back to corporate life it’s not because they prefer PAYE world. It’s usually because they have just run out money.  They aren’t able to make enough income to cover their day-to-day costs, let alone make a profit.

But these businesses don’t go out of business because of bad service or poor quality products.  These businesses are usually run by people who are passionate about what they do and genuinely care about their customers. 

So why is it that many home based businesses come and go? 

Is it because they had a bad business idea? 

Sometimes, yes but more often the real reason is that they have no idea on how marketing works and what are the easiest and simplest ways of attracting customers. 

Let me give you an example. 

Jane is an ex-accountant who got fed up with the commute in to work every day and because of her passion for colours and interiors, she decided to re-train and start up an interiors business.  She now offers a range of services from one-off consultations and personal home styling to project managing big decorating jobs. 

Jane is based in a fairly affluent area.  The credit crunch is not yet affecting the local spending patterns but the high housing prices has meant that more people are extending and modifying their property to get more space rather than move.  There is a market place for Jane’s service, especially when Jane has worked out that she only needs to be working with a maximum of 10 clients at any given time. 

She has sensibly got a 6 month financial buffer, but four months in and Jane is finding it difficult attracting enough clients to her business.  She rarely has more than the odd appointment in her diary each week.  

She advertises once a month in her local newspaper because she felt she ought to have a presence and get her name out there.  And she has also just signed up for one year advertising in her parish magazine as well with a local online business directory.  She has even gone round and put a leaflet in every door in her local neighbourhood offering a free consultation, but not one person has called her about the offer. 

Selling her business is becoming hard work.  It is demoralising and the passion is starting to dwindle.  If it carries on like this, Jane will be forced to give up on her dreams and return to her accountancy career to pay the bills. 

It’s not fair is it?  Especially when Jane is offering a quality and professional service which is backed up by study and training.  There is a local market for what she offers and she knows that her knowledge can help increase the value of people’s homes and save them endless of hours of research.   

But what she doesn’t know is how to market herself.  All her money is going in to advertising that obviously is not working for her and on leaflets that are obviously aren’t compelling enough to make people call. 

Jane needs to stop and take the time out to really get to know her target customers. 

Targeting the right customers with the right messages is really the secret to great marketing.  The better you know the people you want to attract, the more likely it is that you will know where to find them, how to communicate with them and how to make yourself attractive enough for these people to call you. 

Jane needs to stop her advertising and go back to basics. 

Who are her target customers?  What are their worries and concerns?  When it comes to home decorating and creating more space, what are their real problems and challenges? 

By focusing on some simple questions such as these, Jane’s answers will help her work out what her special uniqueness could be to make her marketing activities and offers compelling and attractive.   

So, for those of you out there who feeling like Jane, take a long hard look at how you are telling people about your business.  If your advertising isn’t working, cancel it.  If those leaflets cluttering up your office aren’t working, get rid of them. 

Cleanse your business of stuff that you are doing because you think it is the right thing to do.   

Stop second guessing and start understanding your customers.

© Karen Skidmore   CanDoCanBe
   Marketing and Business Inspiration for Women 

   www.CanDoCanBe.com

 

How do you tell people about your business?  What do you tell your prospects when they ask what you do?

 You need the free MP3 audio programme (and accompanying workbook) entitled Transform Your Networking With a Verbal Signature™  available to subscribers of the industry leading e-zine The Marketing Edge from Zee2A.  Claim your copy here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Essential Components of Achievable Goals

Last month we talked about the importance of clear, specific, time-linked goals to your professional service business. I hope that many of our readers have taken some time to develop goals for their business following the guidelines in that article. However, we finished by acknowledging that some have become ’scarred’ by previous experiences of setting goals and then being disappointed at not achieving them. The question we posed then was: Are the goals to blame?

I’m sure most of you didn’t need to wait for me to tell you that the answer is NO! Goals may be a key foundations step to achieving business success, but they are by no means the ONLY thing your business needs! Having goals is no guarantee of success, as those scarred ones found to their cost. Why is that?

Have you noticed that goals are somewhat similar in essence to dreams? My eldest brother puts it this way: “There’s a fine line between having a vision and hallucinating”. Now if there’s one thing that characterises dreams and hallucinations, it’s that they most often do NOT become reality! (We’re glad of that when Pink Elephants come past on Unicycles!) If our goals are indistinguishable from our dreams, can it be any surprise that we don’t achieve them?

So how do we ensure that our goals become reality? There are two key requirements to which we must give attention:

Have a Roadmap to Your Goals

You will come across a school of thought in self-help literature that suggests you need do nothing to foster your goals. ‘Just dream it’ goes the logic, ‘and your marvelous brain will go to work to move you closer to what you dream of’. Now, if your financial advisor told you that he was taking that type of approach to growing your investments, how happy would you be? Me either! And it won’t work for your business - taking my word for it will save you a ton of heartache.

Let’s go back to the scenario we used in the last article - we were driving on the M3 hoping to get to Heathrow Airport to catch a flight. Did we have to give some thought to how we would achieve that goal? Of course we did! If we had never made the journey before would we leave the route to chance? Or would we make sure that we had the map-book dog-eared at the right page and the route penciled-in? (Okay, okay - I’m showing my age! We’d have printed out the AA-recommended route and made sure that we understood it.) Then as we approached each intersection, wouldn’t we refer back to that map to check that we were about to make the correct turn?

Revenue and sales targets form your business roadmap. Do you have a revenue target for this quarter? Equally important, do you understand how many sales you need to close in order to achieve that revenue target? Any longer than three months, and your ‘map’ doesn’t show the key intersections. I don’t need to tell you how dangerous a map that doesn’t show the route in sufficient detail is, I’m sure!

To force our analogy just a little further, your ‘driving the route’ is accomplished by implementing marketing strategies which lead to sales, and each quarter the number of sales closed will be compared to your ‘business roadmap’ to measure progress. Not enough sales and you run the risk of reaching the airport late for your flight. If you realise that early enough you can decide to drive the next leg of the route a little faster to make up time, but if you’re not monitoring progress how would you know?

Your goals would be slowly, imperceptibly fading into dreams - leaving behind nothing but scars.

Have the Tools You Need

So let’s assume that we have the route to our goals mapped out. Is that it? Well, would a roadmap be much good to us if we had an empty fuel-tank? Or perhaps didn’t have a car? What if we didn’t know how to drive? Nope, the roadmap’s not the end of the story.

In broad terms we could say that the next step is to understand what resources we need to accomplish our purpose. Here’s where we entrepreneurs realise how different running a business is from working for someone! Suddenly we come face-to-face with how little we know about things like marketing, customer service, brand-building, business management and so on. How can we close the gap?

There are essentially three options when it comes to resourcing our business plans: Ignore it, outsource it or learn it.

Ignoring it is not usually recommended, but don’t forget that it is an option! Sometimes I come across well-meaning entrepreneurs who follow every trend in management slavishly, burning time and effort in pointless pursuits. If only they realised that they could just have ignored the trend! Focus on what is necessary to progress your business, and ignore the rest.

Outsourcing is vital, because each of us has only two hands. Remember, though, that outsourcing is not an excuse for abdication. You are responsible for the success of your business - and that can never be outsourced! We’ll explore the appropriateness and the value of outsourcing in a future article.

How sad that in a world awash with education, learning seems to be a sadly neglected skill. Entrepreneurs have (in my humble opinion) an obligation to be lifelong learners, and it’s made so easy for us! Each of us can get what I like to call a ‘Weekend MBA’ simply by reading a carefully-selected book written by an expert in the field - every weekend! Similarly, coaching and mentoring under the care of acknowledged industry leaders can unleash more power than a nuclear reactor - right in our own backyard!

In summary, take the time and effort to give your goals wings. Plan the route to success, then make sure you have what it takes to complete the journey. And don’t forget to have fun!

©David Deakin and Zee2A Limited

Would you like to reprint this article? You may do so as long as you include the copyright notice and the following paragraph:  David Deakin, CEO of Zee2A, is a marketing guru who works with Professional services Executives yearning to take their business to the next level of profitability and success.  Through one-on-one and group mentoring programmes he helps them to create sustainable marketing strategies that attract more clients at profitable rates. To learn more, sign up for his e-zine, or make an enquiry please visit http://www.zee2a.com

 

 

3 ‘A-ha’ Success Principles That Have Reshaped My Business

Ali Brown is a fellow marketing mentor, whose work and philosophies fit in really well with ours here at Zee2A.  The following article appeared in her “Highlights on Marketing and Success” E-zine last week, and we’d like to share it with you:

“3 ‘A-Ha’ Success Principles That Have Reshaped My Business”
by Alexandria K. Brown

Over the past several years I’ve immersed myself in learning. Because my business is marketing, I have mostly attended and spoken at marketing seminars. But I also make plenty of time to read books, attend seminars, and listen to audio programs on personal development as well.

Why?

You should actually work harder on yourself than you do on your business (or job). I first learned that from Jim Rohn, whom some call the father of personal development. Some call him America’s foremost business philosopher. I just call him brilliant. (Jim was one of Tony Robbins’ first mentors, too.)

There are three success principles I’ve learned over the years that I wanted to share with you. I call them my “a-has” because they put my attention on areas I’d never thought of. And following these guidelines has helped me skyrocket my business.

1. You are the average of the five PEOPLE you hang around the most.

When I first heard this quote from Jim, it struck a big nerve in me. Robert Allen says something similar, that your bank account balance is typically the average of the five people you hang around the most. (Yikes!)

I realized I needed to surround myself with people whom I wanted to be like. I still love my old friends, but I make a specific effort to be around people who take risks, think big, and talk about great ideas instead of the latest celebrity gossip, the price of gas, or how much they hate their clients.

What first opened up my circle of influence was attending seminars. I continually go to seminars on marketing, business, and personal development. There are so many great seminars going on every month all around the country, at all price points. You have no excuse not to get out there and meet people who are playing big!

2. Your HABITS create your future (and your fortune).

Brian Tracy talks a lot about this. Your daily habits create your long-term results. Your habits today will determine your outcomes tomorrow. If you want to be a millionaire, you’ve got to have millionaire habits. If you want to be a great leader, you must have the habits of a great leader. If you want to get in shape, you’ve got to have the habits of a fit person.

What new habit can YOU put into place right away?

I wanted to put into place a millionaire habit. Because I detest budgets (and enjoy spending), I needed an easy way to save money. So now I have a set percentage of my inflow automatically go into a savings account that I don’t touch.

And because I enjoy looking and feeling great, I made the habit many years ago to exercise at least 5 days a week. To kick this into gear, I hired a trainer, which forced me to make the habit happen. It was a struggle at first, but now I feel off-balance if I don’t work out regularly.

3. Make sure your ENVIRONMENT supports you in playing big.

A few years ago I had the chance to hear a dynamic woman named Artemis Limpert speak at an event in Dallas. In her talk, she pointed out that when you have a pet fish that’s sick, you treat the water — NOT the fish.

Your success depends more on your environment than you know, but it’s extremely important that you give yourself an environment that supports you at the level you want to BE at. (Note that I did NOT say the level you are at now!)

There are generally 3 areas of your environment you should pay close attention to:

First, your physical environment. Do you love your office? Do you have enough space to work and plan? Are you surrounded by attractive things? Do you have a nice view or at least a beautiful piece of art to look at? I paid a pretty penny for my beach pad, but I can’t tell you how inspiring it is every day to look out at the peaceful ocean, sailboats, blue sky, and the sand. It fuels me.

But you don’t have to spend a lot of money on your environment. Little touches like candles, flowers, music you love, and photos of friends and family can go a long way. (Even if your office is the kitchen table!)

Second, your emotional environment. Are you getting the support you need from your family and friends? It’s up to YOU to ask for what you need.

If they cannot provide it, find a coach, a mastermind, or a support group. I find it wonderful to have a mastermind group for support. I can bounce ideas off them, ask for help with problem solving, share my victories, and sometimes just vent!

Third, your intellectual environment. Jim Rohn says, “Are you feeding your brain protein every day, or are you just giving it candy?” Most Americans sustain their brains solely on candy - that is, useless television shows, news, and gossip. Are you stimulating yourself with big ideas and new learning? Again, check out a seminar, take a teleclass, or buy some books or audio programs. (I love listening to programs on CD or my iPod, so I can learn while driving my car or relaxing on a plane.)

© 2003-2008 Alexandria Brown International Inc.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown publishes the award-winning ‘Highlights on Marketing & Success’ weekly ezine with 28,000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at www.AlexandriaBrown.com

Do You Treat Prospects like Idiots?

I was in the toilet at a large local department store the other day and there was a sign on the (empty) paper towel dispenser saying “In order to reduce our carbon footprint we longer offer paper towels in our toilets. We apologise for any inconvenience caused”. So … let me get this straight … because we’re REDUCING our carbon footprint, we’re now forced to use a hot-air dryer? A hot-air dryer that consumes high levels of electricity (it’s core component is an incandescent heating element) and blows unnaturally hot air out into the atmosphere (thus contributing to the greenhouse effect)? That’s BETTER for the environment? Or is it perhaps just a little cheaper for the store budget?

That got me thinking (yes, I know - it must have been painful - ha ha!) that we sometimes make decisions for very good reasons, then get scared of telling customers and prospects why we made the decision. So we trump up some flim-flam that makes us look like socially-responsible citizens but doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Is that okay? You’ll get different answers, but I don’t think so. I don’t like dealing with people and organisations that patently think I’m stupid - they may be right, but they’re not making me feel special, are they? I’m not saying that I’ll never go to that store again, but it’s left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t trust them any more.

I’d far rather that they had just told me the truth - they’re budget-conscious and they felt that having a hot-air dryer in the toilet was sufficient to the needs of customers. It wouldn’t have damaged the relationship.

What do you think?

Strange Networking Behaviour… A Mystery….. What Is With This Man??

I have to share a really strange story with you:

I keep on running into the same chap at almost every networking event I attend in a particular area lately (it’s been at four different events hosted by four different organisations).

I even have the misfortune of ALWAYS having him sit next to me at the breakfast / lunch / or dinner table. Why do I say “misfortune”? Well, apart from his name I know absolutely nothing about him. (And I only know his name because it’s on his name badge).

He will not say who he works for, what he does, or share anything constructive at all. When he does contribute to our conversations its only to say something really obscure or negative.
He does not carry business cards, and when I asked him at the last event how I would go about contacting him if I wanted to, all he said was “those who need to contact me know how to find me”…..

It’ not just me he is like this to. He gives the same pathetic lines to anyone who talks to him. So I really really need to understand what on earth makes him waste time attending these events in the first place? What value is he getting by networking ? And what value is he giving back? And how do I avoid having to sit next to him and waste my own time and opportunities again?

****
The plot thickens: I have even googled his name and can find nothing at all; so now I’m begining to wonder and imagine all sorts of conspiracy theories… like maybe he’s a stalker…. or perhaps a hit man and when he hears the ‘right’ kind of conversation at the table he hands a note saying “I can help you with your problem”….

Any ideas?

Are You Fishing in the Wrong Pond?

If you’ve been a subscriber of the Marketing Edge for a while, you no doubt recall my article in January about “Networking That Produces Results – How to Work That Room!”

Today I’m not going to focus on working the room, but on working the entire concept. I’ll be discussing three essential elements that absolutely have to be at the forefront of any networking that you do. I am taking it as a ‘given’ that you are in the professional services arena, are offering a premium service, and are not trying to be the cheapest provider in town.

1. Fish in the Right Pond

If you had set out to fish for Cod, would you take your tackle out on a barge on some English canal hoping for success? Likewise if you were aiming to catch Rainbow Trout would you set out on a deep sea vessel heading for the Atlantic? Of course not! You would have done your homework in advance, known where the highest concentration of your ‘target’ was, and set off to fish in those waters.

Networking should be no different. In order to get the highest return on your investment (that’s your time and money) you simply have to be doing your networking where your ideal prospects are.

There are a great many different networking organisations to choose from that you may feel overwhelmed by the choices. I wholeheartedly recommend that you take full advantage of attending as a visitor, as many times as the group allows, before making any commitment to join. Investigate, do your homework, and make sure that the fish you want to catch are swimming in that pond!

There is a school of thought that suggests it doesn’t matter where you network because networking is simply about meeting people and making connections. I totally disagree. Pure business sense and sheer economics mean that lots of low value connections, not turning into money, equals a high cost of conversion and low return on investment. It simply has to be about quality not quantity, which brings me nicely on to the next point:

2. Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thinly

To make a genuine success of your networking efforts and get tangible value out of it, it is imperative that you be an active, visible member of the group (or groups) to which you belong. This comes back to the quantity issue. Ask yourself: Can I be an active, visible, highly involved member of a whole host of different networking clubs? To get the most value out of my membership how much time would I have to dedicate to attending events? Over the course of a week or a month, how many hours am I spending at these events? How many work days does that equate to? Now the killer question: Do I have to compensate by catching up on work in the evenings and at weekends?

Hmmm.

Never forget that you have a business to run. Spending time and money in marketing efforts that get poor or wishy-washy results is going to have disastrous knock-on consequences. I’m not saying that your networking is getting poor results, but it introduces the third point.

3. Frequently Evaluate

If we keep doing the same things, we will keep getting the same results. That’s why it is crucial to frequently evaluate what we are doing and examine what results are being obtained from those efforts.

We do, of course, also need to factor in the cost of membership to all these clubs, plus any additional out of pocket extras like the breakfasts or lunches there. How does that fit in with your overall marketing budget? Can you think of ways to get more ‘bang for your buck’ by getting in front of your prospects in a more targeted way?

Many fish migrate to other waters during different seasons, or because of other changes in environmental factors. So too, do we need to frequently evaluate whether our ideal prospects are still swimming in the pond where we have cast our net.

Back on the issue of quality rather than quantity another area that demands close evaluation and scrutiny is that of the quality of business or referrals that are being obtained within the group. If the best referrals you are getting are names and numbers on a post-it note, they are likely to result in nothing more than a cold-call at best. Take an honest look at your conversion ratio: How many of these leads are being turned in to paying clients? How long does it take?

(A simple way to warm up a referral is to ask the referee what they know about the prospect and their needs, and then encourage them to make a warm introduction. It’s important that the approach is made by the person that the prospect knows and trusts. It can even be as straightforward as just arranging a phone call or exchange of emails between you and the prospect. Try this tip alone and see your conversion rates sky-rocket!)

You absolutely have to ensure that any networking you do fits in with your overall marketing strategy. (You do have one, right?) If your weekly commitment is turning into a glorified breakfast club or ladies tea-party it’s time to refocus, reprioritise, and re-evaluate what may be better uses of your time.

©Vanessa Deakin and Zee2A Limited 2008. Would you like to reprint this article? You may do so as long as you include the copyright notice and the following paragraph: Vanessa Deakin, Operations Director at Zee2A, is a Marketing Coach who works with Professional Service Executives frustrated and disappointed with their current growth rates, marketing efforts, and business profitability. Through one-on-one and group mentoring programmes she helps them to skyrocket their results and break their own best records. To learn more, sign up for her e-zine, or make an enquiry please visit our website at www.zee2a.com

The ONE Thing Your Professional Services Business MUST Have!

Here’s a challenge: Do you know the ONE thing that separates the successful (including the obscenely successful, like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates) from the also-rans? Think you do? Perhaps then you also know that this same ONE thing makes more of a difference than pretty much anything else to ensure that your small business will one day become a big business, rather than a failure statistic? Anyone can do it, and it doesn’t require special skills, proprietary tools or expensive resources.

Shall I put you out of your misery? The ONE thing you MUST do for your business is to set clear, specific, time-linked goals.

What? That’s it? Boy, what a build-up for so little … but before you drop this article in disgust and go on to something else, answer me this: What are your revenue goals for the next three months? How many new clients are you planning to close between now and then? What’s the planned average revenue per client you close? Can you also answer those three questions for the remainder of the calendar year? If not, why can’t you answer those questions?

Most people who can’t answer those questions tell me that plans are irrelevant; it’s results that matter. What’s the point (they ask) of plucking numbers out of the air that may or may not match reality? Why not follow the Nike approach and ‘Just Do It’? After all, plans and goals don’t put money in the bank. And of course they are right; in the same way that drawing up plans for a new house doesn’t put a roof over your head – or does it? Do you know anyone who successfully owner-built a new residence WITHOUT first drawing plans? Neither do I, and that’s exactly my point.

Let’s take a few minutes to understand the value of focused business goals to you; and while we’re about it we’ll highlight the three steps to successful goal-setting:

The Journey versus The Destination

Shall we begin by visualising ourselves driving in a car? I usually frame this visualisation within the context of the M3 Motorway in Hampshire, heading for Southampton. (If you unfamiliar with that route you may want to Google it.) The key question is this: Is that a GOOD or a BAD thing?

No idea, right?

We couldn’t answer that question without at least some context, so let’s add a little to our visualisation. Let’s say that we are trying to get to Heathrow airport. (For those unfamiliar with the area, Heathrow airport would be behind us, and getting smaller in the rearview mirror). Now: Is that a GOOD or a BAD thing?

Isn’t it amazing how a simple thing like knowing where we want to go can make such a difference? Goals do that for your business – they give context to your analysis of progress and strategy. They allow you to decide whether to keep doing something or to stop and do something else, because they allow you to understand whether your efforts are moving you closer to where you want to be, or taking you further away.

There or Thereabouts

Let’s just take a moment to delve a little deeper into your destination as context. If you were heading for the airport, would it be enough to know which county it was in? Of course not! In fact, even having the main airport entry road as a destination wouldn’t be good enough – you would also have to know which terminal you were flying from, and where the rental car drop-off point was.

Likewise, it’s not enough for your business to have the goal of ‘being successful’. What does that mean? Take the time to define success. Remember too, that even if you didn’t set up your business to get rich you need financial goals. After all, money is the only means we have of keeping score!

The Tyranny of Time

Of course there are further aspects of context that enhance our visualisation. So, let’s imagine that we have turned the car around and are now heading towards the airport. The clock on the dashboard reads 14:12.

You’re ahead of me by now: You want to know what time the aircraft is leaving before you can tell me whether we’re on time, right? See how powerful that could be for your business? Not just WHAT you want to achieve, but WHEN you expect to be achieving it. So if what you are doing isn’t producing results fast enough, you can start trying something else, because you know where your business should be at a certain point in time. Since you are the driver, you are the only person who can make those changes – and you need the context within which to do it.

Don’t fall into the trap of setting your timelines too far ahead. (Many folk I speak to can tell me what their five-year revenue goal is, but not their current-year goal.) Within the context of our visualisation, what good would it do to know that we have to get to Heathrow in two weeks time? There would be no urgency, no immediate need to consider progress and direction – nothing to help us enhance performance. In short, an opportunity wasted. You – and your business – deserve better than that!

In summary, the ONE thing your business cannot do without if it is to succeed is goals. Those goals need to be clear, detailed and timely. If your business doesn’t have that, don’t delay! You could be on the road to Southampton at this very moment!

Having goals is not the end of the story, as many learn to their cost. The single biggest excuse I hear for not having goals is: ‘I set goals in the past and didn’t achieve them, so what’s the use?’ It’s not too dramatic to say that such people are emotionally scarred by their past inability to achieve their goals – but should they be blaming the goals? Does the problem lie elsewhere? We will explore this further next month.

Are you a Professional Services Executive yearning to grow your business profitably without sacrificing your quality of life? Are your goals becoming clearer but the strategies to achieve them still eluding you? Zee2A can help! Find out more about our Marketing Edge Mentoring Programme here.

©David Deakin and Zee2A Limited

Would you like to reprint this article? You may do so as long as you include the copyright notice and the following paragraph:  David Deakin, CEO of Zee2A, is a marketing guru who works with Professional services Executives yearning to take their business to the next level of profitability and success.  Through one-on-one and group mentoring programmes he helps them to create sustainable marketing strategies that attract more clients at profitable rates. To learn more, sign up for his e-zine, or make an enquiry please visit http://www.zee2a.com

Why is the Queue Out the Door?

I was in town around lunch time the other day, after a business meeting, and on the stroll back to my car walked past the Post Office and a variety of different banks. I couldn’t help but notice what they all had in common: Queues out the door!

It got me thinking. What are these people doing? Why are they wasting so much of their precious time standing in queues? Why, in the 21st Century are so many folks still fighting the crowds and rushing around paying bills during their lunch hour? Personally, I’d rather be relaxing over a cappuccino and a good book.

A possible reason could of course be that there is insufficient staff around to cope with customer demand. We’ve all been at the bank, the post office, or even the supermarket and never seen every single checkout / teller / cashier position manned. It always feels like they all go to lunch the same time we do!

However I lean more strongly towards another reason for all the queues: Customer resistance to using the alternatives.

Humans are creatures of habit. If we’ve always done things a certain way, we unconsciously do them on autopilot time and time again. So we have always gone in to the bank to pay our bills. We always go to the post office to buy our stamps or to pay our Road Tax. We take 3 hours on a Saturday to do our grocery shopping. Newsflash: If we keep going to busy places at busy times and rejecting the alternatives, we will keep having to stand in queues!

By the way: our whole philosophy here at Zee2A is to challenge conventional wisdom and find better and smarter ways of doing things. Read more here.

So are there smarter alternatives to standing in queues at the bank, the post office, or the supermarket? Yes, yes, and yes again!

The Bank

I can tell you honestly, that I never go to the bank anymore. Trust me, spending almost a decade and a half working with or for banks, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time inside. I also spent so much of that time trying to educate customers on the alternatives, but I have never come across so much resistance in all my life.

There truly is very little real need to stand in a queue at the bank – just about anything you’ll ever need to do, can be done another way.

• Paying bills? No problem, just set up a direct debit or standing order and you’re set. There’s no need to keep an eye on the calendar either, and you’ll never make another late payment again. Many companies even give you discounts for paying this way. (Bonus!)
• One-off payments? Mail a cheque or pay by card over the telephone.
• Need cash? Use the ATM – plus, most UK banks allow you to withdraw funds from any other bank’s ATM at no charge. You can even get ‘cash back’ when you pay for your shopping at most supermarkets.
• Need to pay-in money? Use the ATM (cheques or notes only, not coins); or put your deposit in a sealed envelope and drop into the deposit box normally located near the queuing area, or through the mail slot at the bank after hours.
• If you haven’t signed up to use your bank’s online or telephone banking service yet, what on Earth are you waiting for?

Most banks will allow you to apply for a loan, an overdraft, or a credit card online or via their telephone banking service. Most will even allow you to transfer funds to an account overseas at the click of a button. I strongly suggest that you visit your bank’s website for full information and to apply for these services. See – you don’t even have to go in to the branch to do that!

(Are you concerned about using these alternatives and the growing threat of Identity Theft? Learn how to protect yourself by reading our e-book available as a free download to subscribers. If you aren’t a subscriber yet click here and sign up – you will be taken to the Download area after verifying your subscription.)

The Post Office

Do you know that you really don’t need to spend time standing in a line at the post office anymore?

If you are one of those people who queues for ages waiting to renew your road tax, for heaven’s sake do it online! For the last few years I have renewed mine via the DVLA secure website. I pay by card, and the new disk arrives within a week.

I don’t even buy stamps at the Post Office anymore. I either buy them with my groceries at the supermarket, or use the nifty facility on the Royal Mail website where I can buy postage online and print it directly on to the envelopes!

Even International Driving Permits, Passport and Drivers Licence Renewals can all be applied for either online or by mail if you don’t leave things to the last minute.

The Supermarket

There are three ways that I habitually do my shopping these days, and my choice depends whether I’m buying a small basketful or an entire trolley’s worth. If I am only picking up a handful of items, I absolutely love the fact that I can use the self-service checkout that most supermarkets have begun installing.

If I have more time on my hands and want to do a ‘proper’ shop, I use the Self-Scanners available. I scan the barcodes as I choose the items and pack them straight into my shopping bag. I even get a preferred checkout where all I do is hand over the scanner and my means of payment, and voila!

When I’m pushed for time, or perhaps want a bulk shop without the hassle of pushing a heavy trolley and packing and unpacking the car, then online shopping is the winner. For a nominal charge I can upload my shopping list and have my shopping delivered at an agreed timeslot. The driver is even courteous enough to bring the shopping straight in to my kitchen, with a smile.

I can’t tell you how many stress-free hours I have saved myself over the last few years by just exploring and then using the alternatives available to me. I would much rather my precious time be used in a more productive way!

If you would like to learn how to make more profit while working less please visit our website to see how we can help!

 

©Vanessa Deakin and Zee2A Limited 2008. Would you like to reprint this article? You may do so as long as you include the copyright notice and the following paragraph: Vanessa Deakin, Operations Director at Zee2A, is a Marketing Coach who works with Professional Service Executives frustrated and disappointed with their current growth rates, marketing efforts, and business profitability. Through one-on-one and group mentoring programmes she helps them to skyrocket their results and break their own best records. To learn more, sign up for her e-zine, or make an enquiry please visit our website at www.zee2a.com

Listen and Learn: A Lesson for Marketers

I love my dad: it’s necessary to make that clear before I tell you this story. My dad is always wondering when I’m going to give up this lark and get a real job. That’s not the worst of it – the worst is that he’s not at all sure what ‘this lark’ is! Yes, I’ve told him – and told him, and told him … Those who are avid readers of The Marketing Edge will know that we here at Zee2A help our clients to craft a Verbal Signature – a brief statement which encapsulates who you work with, what problem you address and what the outcome is of addressing their problem. My dad has heard my Verbal Signature on many occasions – so why doesn’t he know what I do?

The answer (I’m sure you’ve already guessed) is that hearing doesn’t mean the same thing as listening. Perhaps you’re wondering what on earth this has to do with marketing, so let me rephrase that: Speaking, telling, talking – none of them mean the same thing as listening! And yet we as marketers are always focused on telling, not so? We just assume that the person we are talking to has listened.

I’d like you to participate in a short experiment in case you’re not convinced. Quickly write down the names of five people who are close to you but not people you do business with – family, friends, community members. Done? Right, now call them one by one and ask a simple question: ‘What do I do?’ If you got five accurate, congruent answers I’d like to hear from you – you’d be a world-first! You’ve told them (almost certainly) but how many listened?

I recently participated in a very interesting experiment under the direction of Maureen Scott of Mascott Training. Maureen wanted to graphically illustrate to a roomful of hard-nosed business people the challenges we face in accurate communication. She did so by splitting us into pairs and assigning one of the pair as the talker, the other as the listener. To the talker she gave an envelope containing a simple sketch, to the listener a pen and a blank piece of paper. Then, sitting back-to-back, the pair had to reproduce the sketch on the blank piece of paper. Get the idea? The talker cannot see what the listener is drawing, while the listener cannot see what the talker is seeing.

I was the listener in my pair but it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine the challenge faced by the talker: how do you even begin to describe what you are seeing? (You may be interested in seeing what I drew, which you can do by clicking here.) Do you describe the scene? Do you describe each line in detail and let the overall picture form as the process continues? What about colour? Positioning of the drawing on the page? Page orientation? (Our pair made the mistake of assuming that we were both holding the paper in the correct orientation, so the picture you see was inaccurate in that it should have been in portrait orientation.)

It is a deceptively simple experiment with so much meaning to be derived from it. Different people listen and visualise in different ways, so understanding whether the person you are talking to is a visual listener, an auditory listener or a kinesthetic (touchy-feely) listener is immensely useful in guiding how you present a proposition to them. Equally, as a talker you need to be a good listener too, because you should be sure to check regularly whether the person you are talking to is developing the correct image of what you are presenting. Maureen illustrated this concept by suggesting that the goal of communication is to create a shared vision, so we should imagine two ‘thought-bubbles’ emanating from the respective heads of the talker and the listener. If those two thought-bubbles are overlaid on one another, are they identical? If not, there is more (and perhaps also better) communicating to be done!

What can marketers take out of this? Here are three keys to effective communication:

• Never assume: Remember the mental exercise of overlaying your ‘thought-bubble’ with that of your prospect. Are they identical? Or does your communication need enhancement? If you don’t know what is in your prospect’s thought-bubble then you need to listen more!
• Be adaptable: Different people need the same information to be communicated in different ways. Are you talking to someone who seems to get frustrated when you try to talk detail? Chances are they are visualisers – start using verbal ‘broad brush’ strokes to paint an overall picture. (This type of person is vehemently opposed to presentations that rely on scores of Powerpoint slides – you have been warned!) Are you talking to a detail person (career engineers are a good example)? They are auditory listeners – break your proposition down to its key components and allow the prospect to build the picture as you supply the components. Touchy-feely listeners really struggle with a service proposition because they can’t run their hands over it! Make sure that you provide lots of references (the closest thing we in the service profession have to a tangible offering) and offer to set up calls with or visits to satisfied clients. Some kind of demonstration of how your service works is also powerful if you are selling to a kinesthetist.
• Listen more than you talk – Always! Yes, you are trying to communicate something to someone else, but never think that you don’t need to listen. Only by listening carefully and diligently can you understand how your message is coming across to the prospect. A ratio of ‘2x listen : 1x talk’ could be called the Divine Ratio – because we were given two ears and one mouth!

In conclusion we could perhaps say that rather than listening and learning, the goal of our decision to be good listeners as marketers is because listening leads to more profitable clients. Now that’s music to my ears …

Are you a Professional Services Executive struggling to close deals at the right price? Do you have to ‘give away the farm’ in discounts to clinch the deal? Would you like price to be a non-issue in your sales cycle? It is possible! We at Zee2A have not had to negotiate on price to close a deal in more than three years! Our methods work, and we know that because we use them on every deal. Find out more about our Marketing Edge Mentoring Programme here.

©David Deakin and Zee2A Limited

Would you like to reprint this article? You may do so as long as you include the copyright notice and the following paragraph:  David Deakin, CEO of Zee2A, is a marketing guru who works with Professional services Executives yearning to take their business to the next level of profitability and success.  Through one-on-one and group mentoring programmes he helps them to create sustainable marketing strategies that attract more clients at profitable rates. To learn more, sign up for his e-zine, or make an enquiry please visit http://www.zee2a.com

 

Excuses rather than Solutions

In a recent issue of our e-zine The Marketing Edge we asked readers to share their experiences illustrating how service providers offer excuses rather than solutions. We ran the same question in the Q&A section of LinkedIn. Here are some of the best answers we received:

“Back in November I alerted my web host company about a problem with one of my accounts. I supplied the requisite paperwork to resolve the issue on my end with the promise by them that the issue would be resolved.No less than five phone calls later, a lost account, and excuses galore, I ended up recovering the account two months later, but it cost me time and money. I’m still not satisfied with the way that they handled this problem and I am closing this account after a five year business relationship. Worse, were the excuses and lack of customer support. There were times I felt insulted by their answers, never mind the canned answers I received for many of my problems.The bad thing about this company is that I am telling everyone how dissatisfied I am with their product. I am sure they’ll lose more business because of their customer nonsupport.”  - Matt Keegan

“I was unable to find my question addressed in the FAQs on the Web site. Past experience has taught me that sending a service request e-mail would only net me further frustration, so I called the service hotline instead. I was routed through a long menu of options, none of which seemed to fit my question. Then I was put on hold. No exaggeration, my phone timed it–I remained on hold for seven minutes.The rep who finally picked up told me I could not proceed any further without a credit card number. My name, PIN, account number, password, etc.–things that work from the Web site (assuming the Web site is functioning, which is another frequent problem) would not do–it had to be the credit card. I ran off and dug up my credit card…OK. I asked my question. The rep told me that wasn’t his department. He transferred me, at which point I went back on hold for another five minutes.The second rep took me through the credit card routine again, and I asked my question. The rep wanted to know why I called her because the other department should have answered. I told her the other department had transferred me, so what do I do? She put me on hold again (3 minutes) and came back with an answer this time…but unfortunately the answer was, we don’t offer that service. Before ending the call, the rep tried to pitch me an account upgrade. It’s easy, she said…I already have your credit card number and only need your authorization!Now that’s nerve. And it’s NOT “customer service.” ” - AnnaLisa Michalski

“Excuses vs Solutions. However best an excuse is, it will still remain an excuse and not satisfy the customers right to get a solution. The irony of today’s cost cutting competetion is that no one is allowed to build an infrastructure to support the customers, every penny goes into marketting and sales efforts. Upon this, there are chances of over committment to sell more. So, finally comes the role of Support staff to handle the customers problems. Really, the present situation is of firefighting and companies should understand the need to build the infrastructure to be proactive to serve the timely solutions to the customers everytime. They should understand that however best the firefighting operation is, it still leaves many damage marks which are difficult to erase/compensate for. Also, the classic case of using Service Providers, the principles should understand that they still are accountable/responsible for the after sales services to drive the repeat sales and so they should be really in the driver seat of all the activities of the service providers instead of allowing them the liberty of carrying out the service operation from A to Z. Its their brand name which sells and its their image which gets hurt when the customer does not get the desired/ committed solution.” - Bhupinder Sehgal

“Part of the answer to that question, I think, goes to the basic business model of the service provider. It is easy to illustrate in the case of a very small (micro) start-up, compared with a larger broad-market provider of the same basic service. The start-up model may rely upon word of mouth and customer referrals to grow the business, and this may work well up to a point. At some point, the company must leverage its reputation, that is, the company has to capitalize an expansion of its work force and delivery zone to keep growing, and this “lumpy” investment (bigger facilities, internal training, new layers of supervision/management, etc.) means borrowing based on past business performance, which was reputation-driven. It starts to get hard at this point. The larger competitor may operate on a different business model, one that invests much more heavily in advertising and sales. To the extent that the big company relies upon advertising and a well managed sales process, they will have less incentive to invest in customer service–because their new customers do not come from referrals, they come from advertising/sales! Now, at some point in their target market, the big company may find that negative feedback, transmitted by word of mouth, is harming new sales. But in many situations, this intuitively plausible outcome does not occur. How, after all, does an unhappy customer communicate their bad experience to prospective new customers? In some business environments (hospitals, say, where there are only a few thousand in the entire country), that’s a risk, but in others (snow removal services to residents in Chicago), it’s tough for an dissatisfied customer to “get the word out” about Ace Snow Removal on a broad scale; ASR can continue to advertise on TV and the Trib.”- Rod Bell

“My worst experience: I took an expensive gas trimmer (had it for 2 months and it busted) into a local shop for repair, the one required by the manufacturer - I had purchased this at a big box home improvement place, but was not allowed to take it back there for an exchange. (flag 1) The shop tagged it, said it would be ready in 2 weeks. I let 3 weeks go by, no phone call. I then call and they say (flag 3)”oh, it’s next in line, it’s not ready, but call in tomorrow, so you can come get it.” I call the next day and it’s still not ready. (flag 2 - me having to call, flag 3, it’s not even ready) Next week, “we don’t have the parts.” (flag 4) Okay, so you get the idea.After 2 months, I still don’t have my trimmer. I call the manufacturer and proceed to throw the shop directly under the bus. The final straw? They said “we have other stuff to work on here, your machine is not a priority.”
I ask for the manager of the shop and he is more rude than the other people that work there –this treatment is part of their company culture! This small business amazed with their ignorance of the situation and had multiple opportunities to care for me, but chose instead to make me feel like I was a nuisance and a bother for wanting my machine repaired.That said, I don’t believe the clock starts ticking at the time of a complaint: it starts ticking the minute you begin a relationship with them. Like any relationship, they have an opportunity to knock your socks off with attentiveness and care or they have the opportunity to completely blow it and treat you like you’re not special at all. Making excuses does nothing but this - they don’t care. “ - Deb Kolaras