They cost too much and they don't work very well.
Most people ignore them, they don't last very long and they're undependable.
Anil Dash has discovered that having ten times as many Twitter followers generates approximately zero times as much value.
The goal shouldn't be to have a lot of people to yell at, the goal probably should be to have a lot of people whochoose to listen. Don't need a bullhorn for that.
Perhaps the most plaintive complaint I hear from organizations goes something like this, "We worked really hard to get very good at xyz. We're well regarded, we're talented and now, all the market cares about is price. How can we get large groups of people to value our craft and buy from us again?"
Apparently, the bulk of your market no longer wants to buy your top of the line furniture, lawn care services, accounting services, tailoring services, consulting... all they want is the cheapest. The masses don't want a better PC laptop. They just want the one with the right specs at the right price. It's not because people are selfish (though they are) or shortsighted (though they are). It's because in this market, right now, they're not listening. They've been seduced into believing that all options are the same, and they're only seeing price. In terms of educating the masses to differentiate yourself, the market is broken.
Fixing this is almost always a losing battle. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean the market cares any longer.
The Marx Brothers were great at vaudeville. Live comedy in a theatre. And then the market for vaudeville was killed by the movies. Groucho didn't complain about this or argue that people should respect the hard work he and his brothers had put in. No, they went into the movies.
Then the market for movies like the Marx Brothers were making dried up. Groucho didn't start trying to fix the market. Instead, he saw a new medium and went there. His TV work was among his best (and certainly most lucrative).
It's extremely difficult to repair the market.
It's a lot easier to find a market that will respect and pay for the work you can do. Technology companies have been running this race for years. Now, all of us must.
If Wal-Mart or some cultural shift has turned what you do into a commodity, don't argue. Find a new place before the competition does. It's not easy or fair, but it's true. You bet your life.
[Please note that nothing I wrote above applies to niche businesses. In fact, exactly the opposite does. You can make a good living selling bespoke PC laptops or doing vaudeville today, even though the mass of the market couldn't care a bit. How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know...]
On a mailing list I’m part of, I came across this wonderful excerpt from a book called Thinkertoys:
Imagine a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb toward the banana. As soon as he touches the stair, spray all the monkeys with ice-cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the monkeys are sprayed with ice-cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.
Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and will want to climb the stairs. To his surprise, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.
Again, replace a third monkey with new one. The new one goes to the stairs and is attacked. Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.
After replacing the fourth and fifth monkeys with new ones, all the monkeys that have been sprayed with ice-cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs. Why not? Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been around here.
I have a feeling that this is the problem with Indian television programming and Indian newspapers. Hardly anyone thinks outside the box. And the box is old. There’s a great opportunity not being taken here because no one has courage and imagination. Pity.
*
from Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch
I have to admit that part of the motivation for the title of this post is to excite the sales oriented folks out there, but no question, the Internet has forever changed the practice of sales.
Meetings are marketing in real time with real people. (A conference is not a meeting. A conference is a chance for a circle of people to interact).
There are only three kinds of classic meetings:
PLEASE don't confuse them. Confused meeting types are the number one source of meeting ennui. One source of confusion is that a meeting starts as one sort of meeting and then magically morphs into another kind. The reason this is frightening is that one side or the other might not realize that's actually occurring. If it does, stop and say, "Thanks for the discussion. Let me state what we've just agreed on and then we can go ahead and approve it, okay?"
While I'm at it, let me remind you that there are two kinds of questions.
There's room for both types of questions, particularly in a team preparing for a presentation or a pitch. Again, don't confuse them. I like to be sure that there's time for the first type, then, once everyone acknowledges that they know what's on the table, open it up for the second, more debate-oriented type of question.
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Not all referrals are created equal. That’s not to downplay any referral in any way, it’s just that from a convert the referred lead to a referred customer, there is one factor that plays a major role.
That factor is the participation of the referral source.
In other words, the more engaged your referral source is in the process of making a referral, the more likely it is that the lead will become a customer. The logic is pretty simple really - when someone refers a friend to your business, you are ultimately borrowing the know, like, and trust they have built with the referred party. The more engaged they are, the more trust they lend.
So, from a practical, business tactic standpoint, you should build engagement into your referral process (you have a referral process, right? That’s another discussion.)
The more willing your referral source is to participate, the better the lead. Participation can mean picking up the phone and calling a prospect or creating a way to formally introduce your business. In the referral world a three way lunch would be the ultimate, while a name scribbled on a scrap of paper would be the unultimate, but some folks are so eager to get any kind of lead, they’ll accept the later.
I know someone is doing your business a huge favor by agreeing to make a referral of any sort, but you’ve got to believe in you heart that you are actually doing them a favor by allowing them to introduce your valuable products and services to others who will benefit. If you can wrap your head around that notion, then you will have no problems devising ways to get your referral sources more engaged.
I wonder if you would take a quick 5 question survey on referrals for my next book - thanks!
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
The Picture Perfect Ideal Customer
When it comes to attracting your ideal customer you should be able create a picture in your mind as you describe them. Using images of a real life customers can prove an effective way to help everyone in your organization narrowly focus on and communicate in ways that more directly appeal to your specific ideal customer.
A detailed profile, one that includes photos and stories of real customers, should be part of your marketing action plan documents. You may never share this type of document publicly, but it can be one of the most important internal training documents you ever create.
In order to create your profile you need to understand as much about your ideal customer as possible. Remember the key phrase here – ideal. I suggest looking long and hard at the characteristics of your most profitable customers that also refer business to you – that’s the model of an ideal customer.
Once you dig deep and profile the common characteristics you should also start asking yourself some questions about these folks.
The answers to the types of questions above are not always available, but pondering them in relationship to your ideal customer may allow you to more fully address their wants and needs in every interaction and communication.
Complete the profile, add a real photo, and hang it up in your office for all to see. Simply hanging photos of your customers around the office, may be the reminder that everyone in the office needs to connect with what your business is really about, what their work is really about, and who really pays everyone’s salary.
Email Marketing Still a Great Small Business Tool
Having lots of channels and lots of ways for folks to receive relevant, education based content is a must.
While social media and other web based marketing tools are getting most of today’s hype, email marketing to a list of willing recipients is still a very powerful way to market.
Staying top of mind is often half the battle and a steady drip of information via email is a simple, effective and low-cost way to get this done.
There are many great options for tools to use in your email marketing, but today I would like to tell you a little about Vertical Response and a free trial of 500 emails available to Duct Tape readers. You can get your 500 email trial here.
I’ve use Vertical Response over the past few months to send my email newsletter and I can tell you that I really like the simple and very intuitive interface. When I did have a question or two, I found a real person on the phone that got me running right away. They also have a survey tool and recently added the ability to send snail-mail post cards to your list.
They have a nice selection of email templates and monthly pricing as low as $10 per month.
GUY KAWASAKI OF HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD | SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2008 - 08:05 AM
(22) FOUND THIS USEFUL. DO YOU? 
As a small business owner, you’re probably concerned about what your customers think of you, and many of you have done, or would like to do, customer surveys. A buddy of mine, Dave Wanetick, shared some interesting thoughts about customer surveys. He is the managing director of IncreMental Advantage.
Accurate reads on customer thoughts are nearly impossible. Responses can be swayed by just one word or even the order in which the questions are asked. Some have compared trying to read customer sentiments to the soothsayers of yesteryear who tried to divine meaning from chicken entrails. Consider how one word conjures up drastically different recollections in this real-world exchange:
Lawyer to Witness: How fast was the car traveling before it ran into a telephone pole?
Witness: Forty-five miles per hour.
Lawyer to Witness: How fast was the car traveling before it smashed into the telephone pole?
Witness: Sixty-five miles per hour.
Depending on who is responding to the survey and in what setting, the results can change. Many survey respondents, for example, are self-selecting, which skews the results. Sometimes asking the same people the same question at different times of the day—for example, before or after a meal—will yield different responses.
Customers do not want spend time answering surveys. Completing a survey that takes longer than the delivery of the service in question is annoying. The mere act of sending a customer a survey can so greatly annoy some people that it tarnishes the company’s brand. Thus, customers often race through surveys to get them over with, and their haphazard responses are a precursor to the collateral damage that will result from relying on such information.
Excessive soliciting of feedback will inevitably result in criticism. Unwarranted criticism is most likely to be evoked when people believe that their ability to criticize is a sign of their intelligence. A serious problem arises when this criticism shakes the employees’ confidence. This criticism can demotivate sales people and render them less effective.
Some customers are not worth having. The peril in soliciting extensive feedback is that the most critical and demanding suggestions are likely to come from customers who offer the company diminishing prospects for profitable returns.
Customers who are only moderately disappointed with a company may become irate when their concerns are not addressed. Thus, companies that rely on extensive surveys are faced with a dilemma: either bend to the customers’ wishes or suffer their wrath when failing to do so.
According to Dave, some of the most revealing customer surveys can be quite simple. Dave cites Fred Reichheld’s idea that one can distill customer satisfaction surveys down to one question:
“Would you recommend our service to your friends and colleagues?”
This is a powerful question because it gauges whether or not customers like your product enough to put their own reputations on the line with their friends and colleagues.
via How to Change the World by GuyKawasaki on
The Pope dons red Prada kicks, politicians break out red ties in election season and that darn Netflix package always seems to stand out in a crowd of manilla and ivory mail. Why red? Do humans have a penchant for the rainbow’s most fiery color?
This study released in 2005 discovered that red-clad athletes out-performed competitors donning blue uniforms and suggested that the win discrepancy occurred because of an innate association of red with dominance and assertiveness. New research goes further in exploring the power of red. Researchers at
The German study attributed their findings to an unconscious bias, but did not conclude where the bias stems from--suggesting that the reason could be as simple as red being more eye-catching. Other studies suggest that our weakness for red comes from primates’ unique color vision that in the past allowed the first humans to forage the forest and successfully locate ripe fruit. Instinctive or not, red definitely boasts some serious power.
While red might not be the color choice for a business looking to soothe and relax customers, like say a meditation studio or spa, if a company hopes to grab a bit of attention and give off an assertive message, strong shades of red might do the trick. Redbox, Red Lobster, Red Hat, (Product) Red and countless other companies have created instantly recognizable logos, websites and packaging that all appeal to our predisposition for all things scarlet, cherry, ruby, and straight-up red.
My best advice: Fire half your salesforce. Then, give the remainder, the top people, a big raise, and use the money left over to steal the best salespeole you can find from other industries or even from your competition. You'll end up with fewer salespeople. But all of them will be great.
And the good guys? Have them go work for the competitionTwo lessons for marketers, one small, the other bigger. First, it's interesting to note how much more excited and open the crowd is to songs they've heard before. Even some of the songs that ended up becoming classics got a tepid reaction because they were unknown at the time.
Second, on songs that aren't working so well, you will hear Neil try harder, play louder, raise his voice and strain to make an impact. It doesn't work. At all. It's what you say, most of the time, not how you say it. From Sethgoding BlockI'll attribute the title of this post to the legendary Peter Drucker, although, that's not exactly what he said - it does capture the spirit though.
I find that small business owners aren't that hot at tracking and measuring important indicators of marketing success. In all my years of working with successful small businesses, I recall only a handful that measured what mattered. And, rarely did that include the one indicator that, if improved, could give a business the quickest jolt.
Measuring and tracking sound boring and complicated. Most of the books on the subject of marketing metrics are so full of academic speak they don't provide much in the way of simple and effective. Simple and effective are the two most important elements when it comes to getting the attention of a small business owner.
So, what to measure. Here's the simple list. Start today or you will never have a benchmark to set marketing goals around. I'm going to start with the assumption that you know how much revenue and how much profit your business makes and that you want more of both.
As you can see, no rocket surgery with this list, but tell me, are you really measuring these three little things? Without some knowledge of each, your marketing effort is little more than a passing hobby - "this sounds good, let's try it this week."
Here's the tip that will give your business a jolt.
Tripling or quadrupling your lead conversion number is usually the easiest thing to do once you start paying attention to it. It's much harder to triple the number of leads so focus on what you say and do on the phone and across the desk, prepare marketing materials that over educate and get everyone in your firm on the same page when it comes to telling the value proposition you have.
I'm not simply talking about getting some sales training or reading a Gitimer book, (although both might be good tactics) I'm talking about a fundamental, strategic shift around what prospects come to know about you and your unique benefits. Focus on that, measure the conversions, and pretty much everything else will start to fall in place.
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