Detour -Listening To Your Sphere Of Influence

Those Around You Can Lead You Off Course

In business, it is easy to become reactive based on the thoughts and feelings of friends, neighbors, family and employees. Everyone has an opinion. Unfortunately, most of the opinions do not have the education or experience to make valid marketing decsions.

These people, with the best of intentions,will give you advice based on their own experience and personal likes and dislikes. Making changes to your marketing plan based on these suggestions is a sure fire way to get off course.

It is possible that some of these suggestions are valid, but reacting quickly to any of them is not wise. When you sarted on your current path, there were valid business reasons for doing so. That probably hasn't changed. Don't change your route unless there is solid evidence that the raod is better, not just different. Thank those around you for their input and stay your course.

Roadblock : Keeping It To Yourself

Communicate The Plan

It never ceases to amaze me that a business owner or manager will invest so much time and money in developing a strategy and spending money to advertise only to keep it a secret. At least inside the business. It's not on purpose, it just slips their mind. The strategy for success never gets shared with the rest of the staff.

I can't count the number of times I have heard about a special deal or service at a business and when I go in and ask about it, the staff knows litttle, if anything. A business owner or manager decides to have a sale and puts it out in their advertising. They never tells the staff and wonders why it didn't work.

Go ahead and laugh. I'm not kidding. It happens every day. I had lunch with a client yesterday that admitted that this very thing happens in his business. Good news is, he is going to correct it.

Share the business plan with the staff. Let them know what is going on. Have a meeting each week to share what's going on. Be it new sale, product push, upsell ideas, etc. You will be surprised how much better things get when everyone is on the same page. Sales might even increase!

R.I.P. Yellow Pages

The Demise Of The Phone Directories

For years and years, advertisers have spent an inordinate amount of their advertising budget on the yellow pages. They felt trapped, almost held hostage. It was as automatic as paying rent. Almost like paying protection money to the mob.The rates kept going up. More scare tactics from the Yellow Page sales reps. More budget out the window. Less profit on the bottom line.

I have always contended that Yellow Pages were a waste of money, simply based on how people make decisions. When consumers have a need, they go to their mental rolodex and decide who they have heard about or used before and look up the number. Yellow Pages got the credit. The giant clutter fest being passed off as advertising did not persuade them to call. (how many pages of ads for attorneys in your market?) Most consumers knew who they wanted and just needed the number. As a matter of fact, most people I know just went straight to the White Pages and looked up the number. Things have changed.

Have you noticed that in recent copies of The Yellow Pages, the White Pages have been moved to the back. Business listings are separate from residential. Call in the immediate family, Yellow Pages are on life support.

The most recent blows to the health of The Yellow Pages are cell phones and 411 with info texted directly to the phone. But the real dagger to the heart are the internet search engines. When I want information about a business, I look online. It's easier than digging out the phone book. As far back as February 2004, The Kelsey Group and Bizrate.com found that 64% of Internet users who make purchases online prefer search engines to conventional Yellow Pages. Go figure.

Don't let your Yellow Pages consultant convince you to use their online directory service, either. According to Jupiter Media, over 64% of people who are looking for information online, use search engines.

Keep your name in a bold listing in the local phone directories for now, but make sure that you invest most of your budget and effort on your search engine optimization, top of mind awareness
and customer service that will create positive word of mouth.

Rest In Peace Yellow Pages. Local advertisers won't be sad to see you go.

Sometimes You Need To Push The Reset Button

Just Like A Computer.

In all of our lives, business and personal, there comes a time when we get overwhelmed, out of sync and just in a funk. It's okay, we just need to recognize it and reset ourselves.

I have been working on getting in shape for the past ten months. Eating better and excercising at least once a day. I had lost forty pounds of weight and nearly eighty pounds of fat. I was in pretty good shape and feeling good. Then, my knee started hurting. Stress was getting to me at work. I had various stresses at home. I had all of the excuses that I needed. I started not going to the gym everyday. I started eating things I shouldn't. I felt guilty about it and this just drove me further into my self imposed funk. Nothing was going right. Time to reset.

My trigger was getting on the scale and finding that the weight I had worked so hard to get off was coming back with a vengeance. In under four weeks, I had gained back ten pounds. Not acceptable. I had let circumstances affect my attitude. Consequently, things got worse. All around me. Not acceptable. Time to reset.

I forced myself back into the gym and back into my routine of success. Five days later, it's like I never left. I am back in charge of my life. All of it. When you feel things are out of control. You get overwhelmed and down, take control of your life. Step back, evaluate your situation and push the reset button. Things will be different when you look at them with fresh perspective.

Once I did this, everything around me was easier to get into perspective. Nothing had changed, just me. I was reset.

Life is only ten percent what happens and ninety percent how we react. Try hitting reset and change your perspective. Let me know how it works and how you did it.

Be Careful What You Ask For

Or Don't Ask For.

In previous chapters, I have talked about having specific goals for your advertising. Knowing where you are going on the road, so that you get to the right place. And make sure everyone involved in the advertising process is on the same page.

A perfect example of this is with a current customer of ours. After completing an uncovery of his needs and weighing the budgetary limitations, we decided that a long term strategy to create top of mind awareness and drive people to his website would help him get where he wanted. He would use the website to give consumers the information that they needed to give them a shot at the bid. The client is a roofer. The product cycle is pretty long. Long term is the way to go.

After a couple of months, his web traffic went from virtually zero to over three hundred unique visitors per week. The client is not really happy though. Why? Because he was hoping that consumers would use the website to request bids. WHAT!!!!?????? Never heard that before. Never was discussed as desired result. As a matter of fact, the site does not even feature a request for bid prominently. It is on the site in a laundry list of other options.

In addition, we discussed many other changes to the site that have not been comlpleted, including, adding the jingle that we created on the home page.

The moral of this story is that there must be a specific end goal for the advertising. Everyone must be on the same page. No surprises! I can help make it easier. Coming soon, be on the look out for an all new Why Advertise Checklist.

Why Ask Why?

One Question To Get More Sales. WHY?

If you have ever been around a four year old, every other word out of their mouth is WHY. On average, a four year old asks about 400 questions in a day. This is how they learn. They ask questions. Sometimes answering these questions is tough. Especially when your four year old has four older siblings. That's one for another day though.

Asking questions is also how we should sell. Selling requires information. You get more information when you ask questions. The most important of these questions is WHY? It can be used a couple of ways.

First is to clarify an objection to a purchase. When you ask why, you find the real reason for an objection. Many times it is not what you assume. When you find the real objection, you can then address it specifically, instead of guessing.

Secondly, asking WHY? buys you some time to extend a converstation, engage the customer and give you time to think about what direction to go next.

The key after you ask the question is to listen to the answer and use the new information to move the sale forward.

Do you mind learning sales skills from a four year old.....if it makes you money? How many questions a day do you ask? (that's one for me)

Give It Time

Advertising Is Not A Light Switch

Just because you turn it on, don't expect instant gratification. Advertising takes time to work. Persuading customers to shop with you is a process. And when they have decided to try you, you must wait until they have a need for your product or service. In an upcoming post, I will dissect that a little further.

Take a look at the purchase cycle of your product or service. The longer the cycle, the longer it will be before you see significant results from your advertising. Unless you have a killer offer initially that motivates a large portion of the consumers that have a need today. This will end pretty quickly and the laws of the advertising universe will catch up and you will be back to waiting.

If you are a mattress store and the product cycle is ten years, it will take longer to see the results than if you have a restaurant. People make dining decisions every day.

If your strategy is on target, give it time. It will work. If your strategy is weak, fix it. It's time to stop wasting your money.

I See Light At The End Of The Tunnel

And I Don't Think It's A Train

What about you?

Everyone has been hit in some way, shape or form by the "economic downturn". The people that chose not to participate have been effected less. Things are rebounding if you look for it. If you choose to see the positives.

We are a resilient country. We have had enough time to assess the hand we have all been dealt and move past it. What happens around us will happen. Consumers still have a need for what we all offer. Maybe we need to change our strategy. Offer some different payment and packaging options or alternate products. Revisit your strategies.

Consumers still drive, eat, sleep, need repairs, furniture...everything. Money is being spent. The pie may be percentage points smaller than it used to be. That understood, we just need to make sure that we are getting our unfair share.

Do you see a light or a train? What can you do different TODAY?

Just One Thing

Curly's Law

Jack Palance played grizzled cowboy Curly Washburn in the 1991 comedy City Slickers. Curly's Law is defined in this bit of dialog from the movie:

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?

Curly: This. [holds up one finger]

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.

Mitch: But what is the "one thing?"

Curly: [smiles] That's what you have to find out.

Watch the clip here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k1uOqRb0HU

Much has been written about "Curly's Law", but for the context of this writing, I would like you to look at it in terms of your business. If you are in sales, in terms of how you differentiate from others in your profession.

If you see a potential customer walking by your business on the way to your competition, what is THE ONE THING that you would tell them to persuade them to do business with you? Now, this one thing has to be something that the customer cares about. Fast and friendly, knowledgable, years in business and locally owned do not cut it. What REALLY sets you apart?

Figuring this out often seems to be a daunting task. It must be done. Many times it is a little thing. Your challenge today is to identify ONE THING that you can hang your hat on and ride to the bank. If you are having trouble, email me at rcovert@gpmnow.com and maybe I can help.

Fuel Up - Ask For Referrals

Use Word Of Mouth To Your Advantage

I wrote about this earlier while discussing the six checkpoints on the road to the customer, but I really want to stress that this is such an effective way to grow your business, it bears repeating. Frequency you know! Ask everyone that you talk to for referrals. Names of anyone that they know that may have a need for your product or service. Ask them to tell others about you. Even if they do not buy from you today for some reason.

This is a simple way to generate more leads for any business, but most people will not take that next step and just do it. After a transaction is completed, simply ask, "Thanks for your purchase or for coming in, is there anyone else in your sphere of influence that would benefit from our product or service?" Offer the referring party a special discount on their next purchase for everyone that they send to you.

This technique works for retail, service or direct sales.

In the end, if done well, you will have people sending you customers from all over. As long as you continue to satisfy and ask, it will snowball!

Pothole - Media Mix

Concentrate and Dominate

One of the most bone rattling pot holes on the road to the customers occurs when a strong strategy is developed and the advertiser is afraid of not reaching everyone with his/her message and puts a little money in a lot of places.

In reality, in most cases, one chosen media used correctly will have MORE than enough potential consumers to make an advertising campaign successful beyond your wildest dreams.

The largest companies in the world can afford a media mix. McDonalds, Verizon, Coca Cola or Budweiser. Most local direct advertisers need to account for every penny and insure the best possible return on investment.

Choose the medium that best fits your need and dominate it. Get a MINIUMUM average frequency of three times every week on the audience. Then commit LONG TERM. If you are looking for faster results, get a higher frequency, but do not expand the reach yet.

For example, if a small a.m. radio station reaches 10,000 people, how many of those listeners do you need to persuade to do business with you over the next year to grow your revenue 10%. The better news is that those 10,000 people know other people.....and they talk! (multiplied word of mouth)

It's not how many people that you reach, but what are you saying to them!

Detour - Reacting To Your Competition

A quick way to get lost.

Once you set on your road with a solid strategy, it is normal to question and second guess yourself. Especially when your competition reacts to you. Even if they are not reacting to you, they are doing their best to grow their market share.

It is very important that you do not react to your competition. The strategy that you set will work. (I am assuming it was a valid one) If it was good when you started, it is still good. If you change direction every time things change a little around you, you will never have your own identity. Your strategy will never have time to work.

Most of the time, your competition will not have the stamina to keep up a long term fight against you. Sometimes you need to weather the storm and stay on your road.

Don't misunderstand, it is important to know what the competition does. Ask a few questions. Why are they doing it? Is that what I want to be known for anyway?

Do the competition have the knowledge that I do to make it work? Just because they do it, does not make it a good strategy. Most of the time, a reactive strategy is very weak and short lived. STAY ON YOUR ROAD. Don't take the detour!

Poetry On The Road

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back,

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

It is extremely difficult to follow the road that is less travelled. Even though it is generally more rewarding. Below are three characteristics that you need to traverse this sometines scary road.

Courage : It is difficult to take the first step and to press on in uncharted territory. Dig deep, knowing you are doing the right thing, albeit not the easiest.

“Courage is being scared to death …..and saddling up anyway. John Wayne

Discipline : There are things all along your road that can cause you to take a detour or get off of the path that you know is right. Anything worth while takes discipline.

“The best discipline, maybe the only discipline that really works is self-discipline” Walter Kiechel III in Fortune Magazine

Perseverance : Push through every road block, pot hole and speed trap in your way, knowing that your goal awaits when you get over the next hill.

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. Newt Gingrich

Are you willing to take the road not taken?

Be A Leader

Anyone Can Do It

I read a great article by Roy H. Williams this week in his Monday Morning Memo. (If you do not subscribe, please do at http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/ it's free and will be worth the read every week). The subject this week was Leaders vs. Managers. Being good at one does not make you good at the other. Read the memo.

It has inspired me to discuss the role of leaders and how anyone in an organization can be a leader. It can be at work, in the community with your friends or among family. A leader by definition is a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal.

Leaders do things and people choose to follow or make changes toward the goal based on the actions of the leader. I have been amazed at how many people have told me over the past several months that I have inspired them to get fit after they saw the results that I have gotten. I didn't even mean to effect anyone else, it just happened.

The great leaders in history were the ones out front putting themselves at risk. From the Monday Morning Memo this week:

Alexander the Great was always the first over the wall of an enemy city. Whether his men followed him was up to them. Alexander was a true leader. “I’m going in, boys!”

Geronimo, the famous Apache leader, was not a tribal chief but a spiritual advisor, a historian of the people and a protector of their beliefs. He said, "I have something I need to do." And when the other Apaches saw what he was doing, they decided to help him.

It doesn't need to be quite as dramatic as Alexander the Great or Geronimo, but what area of your life or career can you be a leader. What can you do to influence others to do it better? Is it physical fitness, better spending habits, quit smoking, making more follow up phone calls, hand writing notes to customers? Up to you.

One word of caution. Leaders are not always POSITIVE influences. Sometimes, a leader can take people in the opposite direction. The negative direction. This happens in any situation that has a void of positive leadership. In the definition, I say that a leader influences towards a goal. That goal is not always a good thing.

What can you do today on your first step towards being a positive leader in your life and or career? Drop me an email at rcovert@gpmnow.com and let me know!

Pothole - Be Realistic

Ads Need To Sound Real To Persuade.

When you write ads for radio or television (including cable), or even the on hold messaging, make sure that the ads are written like you would speak. Very seldom do we actually speak the way we write and that makes our ads seem phony. Don't worry if grammar check doesn't agree with your written phrasing. Write it the way you speak. If someone writes it for you, edit it and add your style to it before you record.

Stay away from recorded conversation ads. Use notes and rehearse. Just talk and then have it edited. We have all heard the ads that sound read and poorly acted. Have you seen the ads with women discussing their feminine hygiene products and thought, "No one would talk about that."? If it is not realistic, consumers see right through it. Consumers do not like ads that sound like ads. Don't insult their intelligence. http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=58zhTjGBhW8

Please be believable. Check out the link to this TV ad. (it is a TV ad about feminine products, so if that would offend you, please don't watch.) Would the conversation happen like this?