Your Business Is Visible 24-7

Posted on | May 11, 2009 | 2 Comments

Your business, even if you are a sole proprietor, is visible to your customers, clients and competitors, 24-7. 

At any time of the day or night, your customers can see your website, read your blog, follow your Twitter, or talk about you to other customers.  Potentially, there is someone talking about your product, service, merchandise return policy, lousy guarantee, great receptionist, rude sales person, etc., any where in the world at any time.  In that sense, you only have limited control over your brand, and that means you cannot afford to make branding mistakes.  Nor can you allow unhappy customers to perpetuate dialogue that is harmful to your brand.  What control you do have over your brand needs to be carefully and wisely exercised.  You can’t afford dumb mistakes that can be accentuated through “negative viral marketing.”

The point I’m making really struck me after an experience I had this past weekend.  I was driving north on I-65 to visit family south of Chicago for Mother’s Day weekend.  A white  Chevy Tahoe passed my car going about 90 mph, swerving in and out of traffic and nearly hitting more than one other car.  The windows of the Tahoe were covered with vinyl marketing messages (i.e., a car “wrap”), advertising an upscale painting company located in Illinois.  As I watched the driver of the Tahoe endanger other people’s lives and property, I immediately thought to myself:

“I would NEVER hire that company to paint my house.  If I can’t trust the owners to drive a car responsibly, why would I trust them in my own home?”

Welcome to the world of marketing in the 21st Century.  It’s reality, so learn how to maximize the speed by which good news travels and minimize the bad news that can damage your brand.  Actually, I like to say that good news travels fast, but bad news travels even faster.

To finish my story about the Tahoe. . . as I was driving, I called the phone number on the advertisement on the Tahoe.  I left a “colorful” message on a voicemail, and I explained that the driver’s behavior was not only endangering lives but also damaging the image of the painting company.   A few minutes later, I got this text message in response:

I’m sorry if my husband, who is driving my Tahoe, offended u w/ his driving.  I called him and asked him to be careful on the highway.  Have a nice weekend-

Although I might not hire this lady’s husband, I might hire her.  She did a good job of damage control, and she might have saved someone’s life.  Had she actually called me personally to apologize, I would have given her an “A” in damage control.  She gets a solid “B.”  After her call to her husband, he slowed down and greatly improved his driving.  No one was hurt.  No accidents occurred.  It was a good day.

Clearly, it would have been better for this lady’s husband never to have behaved like that in the first place, especially as he drove a rolling company billboard up I-65.  But she did the responsible and business-wise thing in apologizing, taking responsibility and fixing the problem.  I am sure that she would have preferred a more positive marketing message from her car wrap, but she did minimize the damage to her company’s reputation with a phone call and a text message.  My hope for her is that she learns from the experience and puts in place safeguards to prevent similar bad incidents that might harm her company’s brand.

What are you doing to control your brand image, especially when you are asleep or when you’re not there to control your employees?

All Employees Are in Sales- Part II

Posted on | April 24, 2009 | 1 Comment

In Part I of this blog topic, I discussed how employees impact a customer’s buying experience.  In this blog entry, I’ll explain how that is the essence of your sales efforts.

This will be short, because the concept is so simple.

Your employees can sell your products or services by showing that they value customers.  Period.  End of concept.  End of post.  (almost)

‘Value our customers?”

What’s that mean?

I mean that they should really, truly value your customers.  There should be genuine concern by your entire staff to help, serve and improve a client’s status or position.  Genuine effort is required, but genuine concern is equally important.  Most customers can detect when a clerk or salesperson is faking it.  That is a huge barrier to getting repeat business, which should be the goal of every business in some form.  It’s too hard winning all new customers every day.  It’s easier to sell a customer whose already accepted your product or service.  So, do everything it takes to get the customer to return.

The first and most important element in that effort rests with your staff.  They are your company.  That one rude (or exceptional) employee, as much as anything, will be remembered by your customer the next time she is going to buy your or your competitor’s product or service.  So, hire, fire and invest in people properly.  Don’t “train” your staff.  We train dogs, seals and show horses.  “Empower” your staff with skills, knowledge and rewarding work environments.  “Develop” your human resources.

Get  this. . .  in many European countries, the success of a company is measured largely by employee retention and job satisfaction.  We treat employees quite differently here in the USA, and it shows in the lack of employer-employee loyalty.  Who pays the price for that distrust and lack of loyalty?  The customer, that’s who.

Align your company’s vision and goals with those of your staff, and you’ll be on the path to making customers happy.  My guess is that most of your staff has no clue what your company is trying to become, accomplish or excel at.  So, it is no wonder that those values aren’t translated into quality customer relations.

Do you get it?  If you don’t, your business is almost assuredly underperforming.

Marketing Organization Chart

Posted on | March 20, 2009 | No Comments

I am a huge fan of visuals!  I’m talking about concepts and ideas presented in a visual format of some type.

Why?

Because we are visual creatures.  Most people learn faster and better by seeing it first.  Then, after they can “see” the concept, we are more likely to grasp/understand the details and nuances that are best explained through words in sentences, paragraphs, articles or books.

I believe in visuals in my teaching.  I use charts, graphs, diagrams, etc. when I coach, counsel, lecture or teach.  I even use role playing, chair positioning, etc. as a way for my clients to learn and remember the lessons I teach them.  Years ago, I bought a book called “The Great Big Book of Process Visuals (or Give Me a Double Axis Chart And I Can Rule the World)” by one of my learning mentors, Alan Weiss, Ph.D.  I don’t use all the visuals in Doctor Weiss’ book, but I did learn a great deal from reading and studying it.  Mostly, I learned that I need to use visuals as often as possible to help my clients learn faster, learn better and retain more of that learning.

Here’s a great example of a visual from John Janash, of Ducttape Marketing:

Can you imagine trying to teach this concept by words alone?  Better yet, can you imagine that your listener would better understand the words alone?

I think not.  I think this chart shows and reveals and teaches a great deal about marketing, without any explanation at all.

However, I’m a lawyer by training.  And lawyers love to use lots of words.  So, I am going to dedicate several blog posts to exploring the concepts presented in this chart.  Until then, take 5 to 45 minutes simply to read and read again this chart.  Consider how it was outlined and structured.  Consider the color scheme.  What do the words mean to you?  Are there other words you’d use instead.  What is missing?  What is unnecessary?

Most importantly, what does this chart make you think about when considering your company or organization?

How can you use visuals to educate clients or customers?

How can visuals help you in management?

On the subject of what’s missing, read this:  http://www.roundpeg.biz/2009/03/marketing-organization-chart-revisited/.

SPECIAL THANKS TO LORRAINE BALL.  I got this chart from Lorraine Ball at Round Peg.  I follow Lorraine on Twitter and through my blog reader, and you should too!