Your Clients Aren't Buying Your Product!

Ask any marketer, the best way to promote or sell a product, service, or idea is to show the benefits to the specific person you are trying to get to buy.

It's the benefits that people are really buying - not the product.

Thus the struggle for any marketing department (and thus for every small business owner) is figuring out which benefits are to sell your product - and which ones aren't. It's figuring out what makes you, your business and the products you sell stand out and want to be bought.

For example, people don't want to pay for someone to cut and style their hair as much as they want to feel more beautiful. But when they have looked at all their options on "how to look and feel more beautiful", they usually decide that they will go to a professional to have them do it.

Cutting, coloring, or styling hair are the services provided, but looking and feeling beautiful is the benefit.

Likewise, people don't go to the local baseball stadium to watch a baseball game, they can watch one (just about any time of day or night) on TV. They go down to the stadium, because of the benefits of seeing a game live - the roar of the crowd, the excitement and energy of the stadium, and the memories it invokes of when they were young. They aren't paying as much for the game as they are paying for the experience and memories of the event.

The ball game, the hot dogs and peanuts / cracker jacks are the products, but the energy, excitement and the memories are the benefit.

I could go on with just about any product or service out there, but I think you get the point. The key is to look beyond what you sell and figure out the benefits that your clientele were sold on when they hired you or bought your products.

Or even more importantly, the key is to figure out the what benefits your potential clients are looking to fulfill.

But you can't stop there - as most business owners that get this far do. The second half of the equation is understanding what people are willing to exchange - usually money and / or time - for the benefits you are offering.

And this comes down to understanding the value people place on the benefits your product or service are providing / offering.

Safety is a great benefit that many cars offer as their primary benefit, but that's not necessarily the a benefit that a 19 year old boy is willing to spend much money on. Where it is priceless to a 35 year old single Mom of three kids.

So the the real question comes down to, what is the value of the benefits you offer - not in your mind . . . but in the mind of your current and potential customers?

I'm sorry to say, finding this answer is not easy. It takes considerable work. But without it, you are simply throwing darts at a dartboard, blindfolded. And far too many business owners (large and small) make the mistake of thinking they know - when in fact they don't. But if you take away only one thing from this blog, let it be that if you want to know what matters to your clients (why they are buying your product),

YOU HAVE TO ASK THEM!

In the case of the hair stylist (I mentioned above) people don't just want to look beautiful, once a week or once a month, they want to look that way EVERY DAY - but they know they can't afford it. Many people are willing to do a lot of daily personal hair care (washing it, blowing it dry and even maybe coloring it on occasion), but most value a professional when it comes to get it cut. While others value their beauty so much they are willing to pay for washing and curling by a professional every week.

The truth is, what benefits people are looking for and how much they value those benefits vary greatly. But if you truly want to make someone (or a group / target market) your client, YOU as the marketer / business owner need to learn and take the time to understand these things and use them to grow and enhance both your business and your customer's experience when they to choose you over every other way to satisfy their needs.

They Are Getting Rich Selling You Ideas - Not Providing You Solutions

As I go through my morning routine, looking for something great to discuss in the blog today, I can't help but laugh. Every other blog or web-page is selling something. They are selling the "best ideas" on how you can change your life or change your business. In fact, one Blog I found talks about the 50 Marketing Tips that will generate customers for you immediately. Another provides the Top 11 Great Sales Tips to turn a No into a Yes.

Guess what? They all work - and at the same time . . . none of them work.

The truth is, there are thousands of consultants (and yes, even coaches, present company included) who are selling their ideas to be the "be all, end all" of your problem solving needs. And do you know who is making all the money with their ideas? THEY ARE.

As I tell all my clients, there are no magical seeds or perfect solutions for every business. What it takes is a Just Do It attitude more than anything else.

Don't get me wrong - you need the information that these gurus are providing you - they do have some great ideas. But what you need more than the ideas is the commitment and dedication to doing what they say, measure how well it is working for you, and then making a sound business decision (based on the numbers, not feelings) on whether to keep it up (and for how long) or try something else.

Everything takes time. Marketing doesn't happen overnight. Leadership is not a skill you master after going to a class. Customer service requires dedication and commitment to putting the customer first each and every day - it's never ending. Sales usually requires getting nine "NOs" just so you can get to the one "YES". If you quit halfway (or even nine tenths) into the process of any of these things, you will see the process as a failure. When in fact the only failure was that you quit.

So commit and dedicate what it takes to make the change to reach the goals you want. And start today - change occurs the minute you decide to make it. And believe it or not, the decision and commitment to act is more important than what you decide.

Separate Yourself From Your Competition

What a surprise . . . another great post today by Seth Godin, Taking The Leap. His blog this morning is about how market leaders tend to be head and shoulders above their competition with insulation that provides a considerable safety net.

In his words, Godin speaks of large market domination, siting examples that dominate the national / world scene. But the points he makes don't just apply to Big Conglomerates, but also to small "Mom and Pop" businesses in what ever market they define to be their market.

- If you are small Hair Salon in a small suburban town, it is possible to dominate YOUR geographic, demographic market.

- If you are small growing coffee shop chain in the Midwest, find out what separates you from your competition and build on it to grow and eventually dominate your market.

- Or if you are a Industrial Thread distribution company, it's possible to develop your systems in such a way that you grow and surpass your competition in such a powerful way that you build a chasm between you and them in your market.

Specifically, Godin offers three ways to separate yourself and build insulation:

- Spend your way to the top (Nike pulled this one off)
- Build an empire quietly, so that by the time any one notices you, they can't catch up (Build-a-Bear is a model for this).
- "Network Effect" (as he calls it), some markets are ready for one intermediary company to show up and be the default winner. (Twitter is an example of this).

Of the three ways to separate yourself from your competition, the one that you have the most control over is the second - build slowly and smartly under the radar (that is unless you are independently wealthy and / or just want to take the risk of being in the right place at the right time). And therefor the one that you should be focused on from a strategic perspective.

Unfortunately, building slowly under the radar requires consistency, discipline and focus - three things I find most small businesses lack.

The good news is that you don't have to be an MBA to pull this off. In fact, if you have formal training, you often tend to do what everyone else is already doing - which never leads to an enormous market advantage. Instead all you need to understand is three key points.

The essence to domination comes down:

• Focus on and grow towards your vision - not just trying to beat the competition
• Innovation and the development of a culture of constant improvement - where you examine your systems and how they work and improving them to better serve your needs and the needs of your customers.
  
• Long term relationships with all your stakeholders built on mutual benefit: employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, and local communities.

If you work on these three elements and do so diligently, before your competition even realizes what you are doing, you will have so much momentum that they can't even come close to catching you - for a long, long time.

To Change Your Business Simply Change The Way You Pay Yourself

One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is they think that since now they have their own business, all they have to do is "the work that they love". And because they are usually very good it (not by their own admission, but by all of the people that know of their work), they think their business will grow and thrive like no other.

Oooh, I'm sorry to say, NOTHING could be further from the truth. Running a business is much more than that.

And there are two types of business owners . . .

Those that know this to be true.

And those that will soon find out.

You see, when you own a business, you no longer get paid to do what you love to do . . . Instead you actually get paid for selling your business and your products to your potential customers.

As an Entrepreneur, getting to do the work you love to do
is actually the reward for generating sales.

Not the other way around!

Sounds crazy, I know. But understanding this point could be the difference between success and failure of your business.

You see, we're all human and we will naturally do more of what we get rewarded for (or what we think we are getting rewarded for). So if you think you are being rewarded for delivering your product and not for the sale, then you will always want to do more of the fun work (what you love to do) and less of the difficult labor of sales and marketing (what you dislike the most and usually know the least about as a small business owner).

As an Entrepreneur, your NUMBER ONE job just is actually getting customers to choose you . . . not producing the product. You can only if and only if new customers choose you. And the problem is thinking about your business any other way is actually detrimental to the long term success of your business.

How do you change this mindset?

Believe it or not . . . it's simple. Start paying yourself to produce customers instead of producing product. Don't compensate based on production, compensate based on marketing and sales.

Build systems and a culture into your business that is based upon this model - it will carry over to your employees and serve you well for years to come - as you grow your business bigger and bigger.

Does it change what you get paid? Probably not. But making small changes in attitude and language can make all the difference - knowing (in your heart) that you earned the money from the sale, will drive you to make more sales. And hence grow your business.

Bottom line is that if you want to grow your business, you have to stop thinking like an employees and start thinking like an Entrepreneur. And Entrepreneurs making money selling, not producing. So rather than paying yourself to produce the product you have always produced, start paying yourself for generating new business.

Leveraging The Talents Of Moms (Part I)

Nearly 70% of my clients are Moms - and most of those Moms are "Stay-at-home Moms".

The fact of the matter is Moms, specifically Stay-At-Home Moms, are one of the most undervalued, underutilized, untapped resources in our society. They work extremely hard each and every day running their mini-corporations, called families. But as I have found in my practice, they want more - they want to be produce more, interact with others, use their god-given talents and find a way to contribute to the marketplace and their needs at home.

Many of these Moms are HIGHLY motivated. Most have either a formal education or loads of business / life experience. And all of them know how to juggle more balls successfully than most of their counterparts in the marketplace.

The problem is their number one commitment is to their family - to their kids. And quite honestly, most businesses haven't learned how to tap into this resource without creating havoc in their business model. Sadly, I believe, this happens because most businesses (even women owned business) are more worried about filling seats in offices than actually producing quality.

Over the course of the next four days, I will be posting a series of articles on how businesses (small and large) can leverage the capability of Moms and how Moms can enhance their lives with additional income doing what they are already doing each and every day of their lives.

These topics include:

- An Untapped Marketing Resource - Moms, a networking machine.
- Win / Win for All Concerned - The talent pool is very deep and there is a desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
- A Balancing Act / Releasing the Guilt - Managing home responsibilities with commitments to business.
- Flexibility and Support - The key to working with Moms is understanding their situation and working with them / not against them - No short-term Deadlines.

An Untapped Marketing Resource

For Business Owners:

Throughout history, one of the most important assets in any business's tool box is their ability to network. Who you know. How well you know them. How well they know you. And who your friends know have all been the important concepts businesses must be able to leverage to grow effectively and penetrate any new market.

So have you spoken to a Mom lately?

Do you have any idea how big and influential their network is?

Whether it is your wife, your Mom, your sister-in-law, or your neighbor, they are an absolute networking machine. Between "play dates", school, preschool, Baseball, Softball, Boy and Girl Scouts, music lessons, the YMCA, local stores, and now with the introduction of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn, the Moms around you know more people . . . WELL, than you could dream of meeting in the next year. And this doesn't even account for the fact that Mom's have a natural elixir for building new with others - their kids.

Not to mention that the people that Moms know are other Moms - the real financial decision maker in most households.

If you are NOT tapping into the resources of the Moms in your life, finding ways to leverage their natural networking gifts then you are missing out on business opportunities beyond your wildest dreams. All you have to do is recruit these women and reward them for the work they are already doing - networking. Take advantage of what they know and who they know to build your business and reward them as they support you.

For Moms:

Stop thinking that you don't have value. As I just pointed out, the network you have has more value than you can imagine. People, including those that you know, are always looking for businesses that they can trust and that will take care of them.

Think about it . . . aren't you looking for the same?

And when it comes right down to it, who would you rather get a recommendation from . . . a friend of yours or some celebrity on a TV ad?

As a Mom, you have a unique opportunity to help businesses (particularly small businesses) grow and prosper simply by doing what you are doing every day. You know your neighborhood better than anyone else. You know the problems and struggles that every Mom is facing - whether she is a stay-at-home Mom or fully employed at an office. You know the services they need and the problems that can arise when those services aren't fulfilled properly. Leverage your gifts and turn them into income. Approach the businesses that seem to understand your struggles and work out a deal to generate strong leads for them - not as a sales rep, but as an affiliate.

Most small businesses are struggling right now with getting new customers to walk through their doors. If you can make that happen for them, by being an advocate, by being a cheerleader for them, you can earn some great money . . . simply by being you.

On the average, most businesses spend anywhere between 5-10% of their sales on marketing. If you are generating leads for them, you should be able to get at least that much for your efforts.

But don't stop at who you know today, build your network and grow it even stronger. Expand it - grow it - increase your influence by engaging with more and more people in your marketplace.

Some recommendations for growing your network include:

- Join clubs with your children
- Meet other parents at sporting events - talk to them, find what you have in common.
- Get involved at school
- Join the social networking sites - Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn
- Get in touch with old friends
- When picking up your kids at preschool or school, get there a couple minutes early and commit to meeting one new person every day - make them a friend. You don't have to be a close friend, but one that listens and understands their life.

Bottom line is that networking, the skill you most Moms take for granted, because it comes so natural with their lifestyle, is an amazing asset that can be leveraged for the benefit of all involved: small businesses, Mom, and all of the people that Mom knows.

Whether you are a small business owner of a Stay-At-Home Mom, you have an opportunity to help a lot of people - including yourself. Don't let that opportunity go un-rewarded.

How Much Is A New Customer Worth To You?

How much is a new customer worth to you?

Unfortunately, most businesses really don't know the answer to that question. And when asked, most owners will tell you what their average sale is - or how much they charge for their product or service. They rarely see the lifetime value of a customer.

Or asked another way, how much would you pay to get a new customer to walk through your doors, hit your website, or call you on the phone?

Sadly, in most cases, the answer to this question is a small percentage of a single sale / contract - usually only pennies on the dollar.

But is that all a customer is worth . . . how much he spent last time he patronized your business (or how much he will spend next time he patronizes it)?

Absolutely not!!! The true value of a customer is how much he or she will spend through the course of their lifetime - that is . . . when you manage to turn them from a one time customer into a lifelong client.

For example, to a brand new coffee shop, an average customer might spend $3.00 on their first visit. But if you can show real value to them and get them to love the experience of your coffee shop, that one time purchase goes from being $3.00 one time to $3.00 every day - generating upwards of $1000 / yr.

So, if the coffee shop owner only thought of the $3.00 sale, he might hesitate to give a perspective customer a $1.00 off coupon to try his product. But if that same owner knew his product was so good and the experience of his shop was so wonderful, the customer was sure to come back again and again, and that customer would spend $1000 in his shop this year alone, I bet he'd be willing to not only give them a free drink, but also buy them breakfast with it.

That's not to mention the fact that this new customer will most likely tell all of his friends and family about the new, fantastic cup of Iced Coffee he had and tell them they've got to try it. He'd tell them, "Not only is the first drink on the house, but you get a free breakfast with it."

Lifetime Customer Value is a Universal Concept

This concept doesn't just apply to coffee shop sales or other retail stores - this idea applies to every business, in every industry - no matter the price point of the product. If you look at your customer as only a one time purchase, that's how you will treat them - and you will have to work to get them to come back each and every time they decide they need your product. But if you build your business around building clients (regular returning customers) and respect / honor them for the amount of income they will generate for you over the course of their lifetime, you will rewarded with patronage, testimonials and referrals beyond your wildest dreams.

Figuring Out Your Lifetime Customer Value

To figure out what your "Lifetime Customer Value" is actually quite simple if you have the right stats. It's nothing more than the total sales you have generated over your history in business divided by the total number of unique customers served.

If you don't have those figures, it's a bit tougher and is simply a wish.

For example, going back to the example above with the coffee shop, we could probably make the assumption that an average customer will patronize a coffee shop regularly four times a week, 50 weeks a year and do so for 10 years. If the average sale price during that time is $3.00 that would be $6000 per customer. However, you might also recognize that for every one customer that likes your business, there are 3 how try it and decide they like Starbucks bitter coffee flavor better. So in that case your average Lifetime Customer Value would only be $1500.

In either case, whether you are tracking unique patrons and total sales before now, I would begin right away. It's important because you want to be able to know what a customer is worth and how much you are willing to give them to get them to try your product or service.

And so I close by asking you again. . . How much is a customer worth to you?

Marketing, Sales, Operations or Customer Service? What Is Your Weakest Link?

Marketing's job is getting customers to walk in the door.

Sales' job is getting them to buy once they walk in.

Operations delivers on the promise that the sales person made - the product or service that the business provides.

And finally, Customer Service is making sure they are satisfied with what they were sold.

Those are the four main functions of delivering a product to your customers. Unfortunately, most small businesses are good at one, maybe two of them, but very few are good at all four. Because if they were, they probably wouldn't be small anymore.

I've heard it said that anyone can get someone to buy something once - often times they will do it out of curiosity. But getting them to come back again and again - to become a lifetime customer - takes a real business person. And of course, it takes "systems".

As you build a new business or grow an existing business, recognize that it doesn't matter how good any one of the processes that I spoke about earlier. Think of the four systems as "the chain of business". You are only as strong as your weakest link. How strong the strongest link in the chain is doesn't matter, the chain will always break at the weakest link.

Sadly, most small business owners usually do the exact opposite - they tend to be really strong in operations - building the product / creating the service that is their business - and they work to make the product better - instead of working on strengthening the other three aspects of their business.

Sure, you can have a great product or service - most people who have a small business do. But if you can't appeal to your target market (or don't know how to) or you can't sell your product (close the deal), or you can't ensure the customer is satisfied once the product is delivered, then it doesn't matter. You might get an occasional sale, but nothing to grow a business own.

Like life, your business needs balance. You need to nurture each segment of the business cycle, Marketing, Sales, Operations, and Customer Service. And you need to make sure that each element is as strong as you need them to be to ensure your customers experience what you INTEND them to experience when they patronize your business.

This takes diligence and commitment. So, as you begin to set out your goals for the next month or even 6 months to a year, make sure that you are committing to not only developing your product and service, but also to how you are going to market it, sell it, and satisfy the customers who purchase it.

Who are YOU up against and what are THEY saying in the marketplace?

Time to get down to brass tacks and put the “who” into it.

That WHO that I speak of is YOUR COMPETITION. It's time to figure out who you are competing with to gain the loyalty of both existing customers and future customers. It's time to list everyone that you are competing with and do your best to figure out what they are doing to steal your business away from you.

Look at it from the perspective of an athletic competition – say a football game. In order for you to win the game, a football team doesn't have to perform its best – it has to be better than the team that it is competing with. The coaches and players have to know what the rules of the game are, their own strengths and weaknesses, and as we will find out in this section, what the strengths and weaknesses are of their opponent(s). In football, the short term goal is scoring points and preventing the other team from scoring them. The long term is winning. In your case, the short term is gaining market share, getting customers to choose your product and / or services over the competition. In the long term, your goal – winning the loyalty of customers is not a matter of being the best you can be, you must understand what your customers are loyal to and do a better job of delivering on what your customer really wants than your competition.

The first step is to find the specific brands that are direct, often called “first level”, competitors to your product or service, in your geographic locality – your trading zone. Your trading zone is the geographic perimeter within which your customers mainly live (or if you have a new business, in which you expect them to live). Whether that is a radius around your business, a entire county or state, or a region of the entire globe (for an internet sales company) – you need to clearly understand your trading zone.

In many cases, these first level competitors offer a product or service that is interchangeable with yours in the eyes of the consumer (although of course you hope you hold the advantage with better quality, more convenient distribution, and other special features). For example, if you operate a local garden center, you may compete against the other garden centers within a 10-mile radius trading zone.

The next group of competitors, are “second level” competitors. These would be competitors who offer similar products in a different business category or who are more geographically remote. Using the example of the garden center, a discount chain that sells garden supplies and plants in season is also your competitor, as is a landscaping contractor who will provide and install the plants, and a mail-order house who sells garden tools and plants in seed or bulb form. None of these competitors provides exactly the same mix of products and services as you, but they may be picking off the most lucrative parts of your business.

The final group of competitors, or “third level” competitors are companies who compete for the "same-occasion" dollars. Inasmuch as gardening is a hobby, third-level competitors might be companies that provide other types of entertainment or hobby equipment; inasmuch as gardening is a type of home-improvement, competitors might be providers of other home-improvement supplies and services. Depending on your business, this could make you crazy thinking about it. For example, a gift shop, you not only are competing with other gift shops locally, and globally on the internet, but you are also competing for “gift” dollars, which literally are spent in nearly every retail outlet in the world. Bottom line is that you shouldn't as much go crazy thinking about third level competitors as much as you should understand the impact they have on your marketing and sales efforts.

Now is when the task becomes a bit more tedious – not difficult, just tedious. We have listed all of our competitors, focusing on our direct first level competition, next in the process is finding out about each of these companies. It's time to figure out how much business each of you competitors are actually doing, what their position is (even though they may not understand it themselves) and how well they are delivering on their promises to the customer. This is tedious, because you may or may not, at this stage, even have a good idea how well your company is doing, so to find out about your competition can be even more difficult. But do your best because you must know whether you are competing with world class competition or just a bunch of “mom & pop” start-up companies.

Describe all of the heavy hitters and answer the following questions:

• What are their product's strengths and weaknesses?

• What are their strengths and weaknesses as a company (financial strength, reputation, etc.)?

• Are there weaknesses you can exploit?

• What are the differences between your product features and theirs?

• What were their sales for last year?

• What is their pricing structure?

• In what media vehicles do they promote their products?

• What is their advertising message?

• Where else do they promote their products?

• What were their total advertising expenditures for last year?

• What is their overall goal (profitability, market share, leadership)?

• How are they trying to meet their goals (low prices, better quality, lower overhead)?

• What were their responses to changes you made in your product pricing or promotions?

Information is often the key to a strong competitive advantage. If you've had difficulty digging up information about your competitors, try your suppliers. They can be good sources of information. Visit your competitors' locations, Web sites, exhibit booths; sample their products. You can also gather a wealth of media and advertising information about your competitors on the Internet through companies like “Competitive Media Reporting” and USAData, and InfoUSA.

Why and How to Write a Marketing Message

So often when devising a marketing plan and / or strategy, small business owners tend to first focus on their marketing methods, trying to decide if and how they should market / advertise. They bounce between traditional marketing and broadcast advertising, direct marketing, internet marketing, network marketing, and to the new kid on the block, social media marketing. What they fail to realize is that the marketing methods are the least of their worries.

Instead of focusing on HOW to get the word, they should be looking at WHAT their message is and WHO they want to receive it - their target audience.

The first question that you need to understand when pursuing your marketing objectives is WHO you want to market to. But honestly, that is a topic for another article. Today, I want to talk about WHAT target audience needs / wants and WHAT your message should be so they see you as the solution to their needs / wants.

Those solutions revolve around the answer to a single question:

Why should your perspective customer choose you and your company
over every other option they have available to them to solve their
current problem (that they may or may not even know they have)?

The answer to this question is your marketing message. And it should be:

• Be clear and concise – Too often, people make their message so complicated and confusing that the customers don't even understand it. Don't make this mistake – use the KISS theory, Keep It Simple Stupid.

• Be easy to promote, understand, and remember - Don't make your marketing message so overwhelming or complicated that it can't be readily communicated – by you, your staff, and your customers.

• Be based on the needs of your customers – You can have the greatest product in your market, one that should be the most desirable product ever invented, but if your customers don't want or need it, or have a perceived need for it, they won't buy it. So it is important to know your client and know what needs are not being satisfied – or the ones they don't think are being satisfied.

• Demonstrate clear understanding need of the client – not just superficially, but a deep understanding of the feelings associated with the needs.

• Honestly represent your product - The more accurate and honest you are in your marketing, the more you will satisfy your customer's expectations. And the more your customer's expectations are met, the more likely they are to rave about your product – acting as cheerleaders for you and your company.

• Be focused to your target audience and be written as such - This may sound incredibly obvious, but speak in the language your customer understands. Many times, business owners and their staff become so enraptured with their own product lines, “living their product and
services” that they forget “joe-average customers” don't. Speak to your customers in such a way that they feel understood and appreciated – and they will respond.

• Reinforce your company's image, or a larger brand image - Imaging isn't something a small company should be focused on, necessarily. But you need to make sure that everything you are doing is aligned – conveying a consistent image and / or brand.

When you pull this off - you will have created the foundation of a marketing strategy that will launch your business to the next level. However, if you try to skip this hard part (creating you message first) and jump straight to the method (the media to get the message out), as most small business owners do, you will most likely be very disappointed and disenfranchised with the entire marketing proces.

Marketing Is Everyone's Job

One very important thing to remember is that, in reality, EVERY ONE IN YOUR COMPANY IS MARKETING.

That's right, the marketing department crosses the boundaries of your entire company. Every employee in your company needs to be aware of the marketing message, visions, and goals of the company, and should reflect that message in everything they do that is related to the product or service you provide, the promise you make and the customers you serve. Because whether they understand the message or not, they are being judged by it.

And therefore judging your business!

Are Your Employees Sending The Right Message?

Every contact with customers and potential customers your employees make, whether it's through advertising, personal contact, or other means, should carry a consistent message about your company and product. Whether it is your the delivery driver that hands the product to your customer, the office receptionist that answers the phone, or even the manufacturing line person that adds one part to the product you make, they all need to understand your Marketing Position - what you are trying to convey to your target audience. In effect, every employee is a sales person, every employee is a customer service representative and every employee is a marketer. And consistency in marketing is critical.

And from the minute your business becomes more than one person deep, consistency becomes a challenge. And the truth is, whether you like it or not, if your customers get mixed messages about what your business is, then they will have a distorted picture - they will be confused - and will most likely choose not to use you anymore.

Any bad, or even adverse, experience a customer has with your company (or its representatives) can affect future sales from that customer, as well as the people they tell about the experience. This bad experience can be anything from a rude receptionist or poor packaging of a product to someone seeing an employee brandishing your company logo acting unprofessional.

Finally, there are so many variables that effect whether a potential customer becomes a customer or a current customer remains loyal. And it is your "Marketing Department's" job to insure that consistency in that message - no matter how it gets out. And it is the Marketing Director (whomever that may be) that is accountable for the total successful image of the company and / or product.

Get Your Message Out To Your Whole Staff

So ask yourself, how well does your staff know what your Marketing Message is? How well do they buy-in to what you are trying to create? The answers to these questions is critical to long term success in any industry - in any economic condition, but even more so in today's highly competitive environment. Because each and every one of them is making a difference in helping delivering that message - whether you want them to or not.

This week, set some time aside to talk to your staff and help them understand how much of an impact they have on your business - not just by what they do, but how they act and how well they understand the message of the company.

Expectation Management 101

One of the quickest way to lose a customer (or a friend for that matter) is to fail to meet their expectations. The customer calls you, finds you on the web (either through an organic search or pay per click), or walks in your store and you might get the sale this time. However, if you fail to meet their expectations in the product itself or in your customer service, they will not be back - ever.

If you're lucky, this customer will tell you why they are / were disappointed - they will tell you that you failed to meet their expectations. The ball will be in your court - you can choose to fix the problem or not (that's a whole different problem).

Unfortunately, disclosing dissatisfaction is rarely the case (especially with new customers) - at least not to the business owner or his staff. Most of the time that unfulfilled customer is going to tell everyone they know (and even some people they don't know) how disappointed they were with you and your business. And in spite of great efforts on your part, these dissatisfied customers will recommend to their friends, family and co-workers to stay clear of you and your establishment.

The cost of lost potential business from poorly managed expectations can be enormous.

However, the truth is, most small business owners don't fail to meet their customers expectations because they don't care. They don't meet expectations because the have no idea what their customers even expect.

There are two easy ways to manage customers' expectations. You can either tell them what to expect or you can ask them what they expect.

1. The best form of Expectation Management is to tell the customer what to expect - Make a Promise / Guarantee and do it boldly. As simple as this option is, most business owners are deathly afraid of making promises or guaranteeing anything. They are scared, because they know they won't be able to deliver. They know that their "in-place"systems aren't strong enough to deliver on the promise and their staff isn't good enough (on a consistent basis) to cover for the absence of properly implemented systems.

So if you want to make sure that your clients know what to expect - tell them. And tell them every chance you get. But don't make promises you can't keep!!! Instead make ones you can.

Start small. Start with what you know you can do right now, every time. And then work to improve your promise every chance you get.

2. Find out what they want - Conduct a Survey. The second, and considerably less desirable option, with regard to customer expectation management, is to simply ask. The reason this option is less desirable is that you aren't necessarily managing expectations as much as you are reacting to them.

Not surprisingly, most small business owners would rather chase the apparent needs of a few customers than define their own path forward. That's not to say you shouldn't ask - and get a feel for what the customer is looking for - but it can be a very dangerous slope to go down if this is ALL do.

In any case, when it comes to customers expectation surveys, you are going to get a lot of feedback. Some will be good! And some will be fodder. The trick is figuring out which is which.

Believe it or not, not all your customers are worth listening to. In fact, the only ones that can truly give you insight into where you focus your attention are your cheerleaders - the ones that believe in you and your business. These are the loyal clients that not only come to you regularly, but recommend you to their friend and family.

It's not that the others don't provide great feedback, it's just that their feedback might take you down a rabbit hole.

So you need to ask yourself. . .

What do my customers expect? Do I really know?

Have I told them what they should expect? Should I tell them?

What should I be 'putting out' to my perspective clients that will separate me from my competition?

What do I want my clients to expect and how do I manage those expectations?

Just remember. The the answers to all of these questions and the ability to manage the expectations of your customers is within your power. They are your choice. You just need to take control and manage your customer expectations in a proactive way.

The Secrets to Building a Business Plan That Works For You

Building a business plan is as important as anything that a small business owner will do to ensure his survival. And unfortunately, most small business owners will usually fight tooth and nail to avoid doing it. They think that it's pointless and irrelevant in the conduct of their business. They see it as something that only big businesses need to do.

But like so many other things that small business owners tend to ignore, it's not the business plan itself that is the key to helping a business grow properly, it is in the act of building the plan that is most beneficial.

The Business Plan, itself, is just the product you build - something that usually just ends up on a shelf collecting dust. What really makes the plan so important to the long term success of your business is going through the process of writing it and finding the answers to the questions that you must answer in doing so. Because the process includes analyzing and deciding how you are going to conduct every aspect of your business: from operations to marketing and from human resources to training.

You see, most perspective small business owners don't stop and look at everything that must be done each and every day for their business, before they start their business. They don't understand that running a small business is more than just doing what they do best. Sure, it is following your passion at first, but very quickly you learn that it's also creating a marketing plan, building a sales strategy, devising a training program, creating a human resource plan, and financial system, just to start.

Instead, most business owners build their business only as the needs arise - as opportunities (or problems) present themselves - instead of on purpose, intentionally.

Business Plans, on the other hand, are built to give you a tool to work from - both on good days and bad. Plans are a road map to success. And although most people would know to "use a map" when trying to navigate in an unfamiliar city, they seem to think they can navigate the difficult elements of starting a small business without any form of plan or guide to help them.

So how do you do it? How do you build a business plan? How do you write a plan that works for you - instead of one that is nothing more than a document on a shelf?

There are two answers that I have for that - depending on your current situation.

First, if you don't already have a business that you are currently running, then I would recommend you write the entire plan before taking your first step. Take the time necessary to learn what it is going to take to run YOUR business (not just any old business) by building the plan. Figure out how you want to do everything - including what you want to do, why you want to do it, and how you want to do it. Decide on your operations procedures, as well as your marketing strategy. Plan it all - as if you were already doing it. Because more than anything, what you want your Business Plan to be is a reflection of what you do first and then how you are going to do it better second.

Or, in the case that you already have a business, then it's easy (or it least it sounds easier). In this case, you start writing your business plan by writing down everything that you are already doing. Write down you Mission, your Vision, and your Commitments. Write down your operations processes and systems. Write down everything you can about how you are currently marketing as well as your sales strategy. Write down how you hire people and fire them. I don't care which part of your business it is, write down how you do it. And that will be the first step to creating your business plan.

Yeah, there's more to a business plan - but if you simply got this far, you would be years ahead of where you are today.

The next step is deciding how you are going to actually create the goals that you want - defining how you plan is going to evolve over time, what's going to happen when and what all of your contingencies are giving possible market conditions. But that doesn't matter now. We can work on that, after we first get things started.

In the end, a business plan is first and foremost a tool for you - a tool that is meant to help you run your business better, not something that you have to do to make your Banker or Business Coach happy. It is both a reflection of what you are doing today and where you want to go in the coming years. And with everything that I talk about in my blog - it's not a matter of knowing all of this, it's a matter of acting on it.

Just Write It!

Measure Twice, Cut Once

We've all heard the adage, "Measure twice, cut once", when it comes to construction and woodwork, but did you know you can use the same premise to kick start and guide your marketing efforts as well.

Reality is that most small business owners have no idea whether or not their marketing is working for them. It's not a matter of not spending money on marketing. They spend just fine. The problem lies in the fact that they don't know what they should be expecting from their investment. And unfortunately, they don't know what they should be measuring or how best to measure it, to decide whether or not it's working. So as important as it is to market your business (akin to cutting the wood), it's just as important to make sure that you are measuring what you want to improve through your marketing dollars.

Most small business owners measure one or two things: gross revenue / sales (how much did I collect) and / or net profit (how much did I make). So when they spend money on marketing, they expect their numbers to go up. But unfortunately, no matter how much money you spend on marketing, only measuring the end product will not yield the answer you are looking for, because marketing doesn't increase sales or profit - marketing increases the chances of making a sale by increasing the numbers of customers that volunteer to become potential customers. It is the entire business system, working harmoniously that builds on your profits.

An example of that is a mass-mailer campaign. If you invest $1000 in a mass mailing campaign, you would expect both your sales and your profit to go up, right? Unfortunately, business systems aren't that simple. Odd are, you increased the number of perspective customers walking through the door, but did your sales team have the skills and training in place to convert those new leads to actual sales? Was there an increase or even possibly a decrease in returning customers during that same period, because of a perceived drop in customer service (with less time and energy spent on taking care of existing customers)? Was the increase in sales large enough to compensate the increased costs of the marketing campaign?

That's not to say that measuring sales and profit aren't important - they absolutely are! However, there are other things to measure as well. The following are just a few examples of things to measure the effectiveness of your marketing dollar:

- new customers walking through the door
- number of times the phone rings per day
- number of website hits
- number of return visits per customer
- average price per sale
- number of referred customers
- where the customer heard of you

So before you go off and spend all of your hard earned money on marketing - that may or may not help you - start measuring the one or all of the items above (and any others that relate to the effectiveness of marketing). This will help you determine which marketing elements are working, and which ones aren't. And give you a better sense of control over what in most small businesses is completely "out of control".

Marketing Your Benefits - Not Your Features

Entirely too often, business owners forget a very simple concept, "People don't really care how you do it, they just want their problem to go away."

I work with a client who is, without a doubt, the best Carpet Cleaner in the Philadelphia Area - JMS Carpet Cleaning (@carpetjan on Twitter). He knows his chemicals, his processes, and is so committed to your carpet care, that he will do what ever he can to make and keep your carpets clean.

So I asked him the other day, what do your customers want? Do they want their carpets cleaned? Or do they want clean carpets?

It sounds like "six of one, half dozen of the other", but there is a difference. One is what JMS does, the other is what the customer gets. In other words, one is a feature, the other is a benefit. And the truth of the matter is, people don't buy features, they buy benefits.

The JMS staff knows carpet cleaning. Unfortunately, their perspective clients don't. So when they talk to them about Steam Extraction vs Dry Cleaning, or one chemical agent versus another, they might as well be speaking Greek. "Jane Average Homeowner" doesn't know, and honestly, deep inside, most don't care. In fact, a majority of consumers actually get lost when you overwhelm them with what you do - because they aren't as good at connecting what you do to what they want as you are.

What matters to JMS's perspective customers is that their carpets be cleaned for their party this weekend so they aren't embarrassed when the In-Laws come over. Or they want to make sure heir six month old baby, who is learning to crawl, is playing on germ-free, as well as visibly clean, carpets.

Rather than talking about all the chemicals used in the process or which machine will work best - the best thing that JMS Enterprises, and frankly anyone else, can do is to "sell" what the customers wants.

For example, if you are a flower shop, isn't it true that your customers are buying a the ability to show how much they care for someone - through flowers. Or, if you are a hair salon, isn't a true that your customers are looking to feel good about themselves? In both cases, the customer is expecting to get something specific and feel a certain way when the transaction is done - and that is rarely exactly what you provide.

So now, take a look at your own business and at your marketing materials. What are you "selling" to YOUR customers - features or benefits? How does this play out for you and your business? What are your features and what are the benefits of those features to your customers?

4 Principles of Recession Survival For Businesses

The recession is here - but that is no reason to panic. We have been through many downturns in the past and I can guarantee that we will see many more in the years to come. Business is cyclical. There are times of great prosperity - always followed by downturns. Followed once
again by - upswings!

It is what it is. You can dwell on it and blame it for all your woes. Or, you can take control of your business and make it work - in spite of the current conditions.

The truth is - the problem isn't the recession . . .

It's how you react to it.

Do you look at the current market conditions as a problem or do you look at them as an opportunity?

I, personally, believe they are an opportunity. And I believe if you approach things with the right mindset you can not only survive, but actually thrive. And, in doing so, set yourself up to lead your market when things begin to pick up again.

The truth is anyone can survive and grow in a booming market. When there is demand galore, it doesn't matter how you market yourself or how good your product is, someone will buy it. If the growth is strong enough, there are even people who will jump into the fray who have no idea what they are doing. As an example, look at the mortgage industry through the early part of this decade - it was filled with fat and unscrupulous brokers (just trying to make a buck).

But when the pendulum swings the other way - oooh, look out. To survive in a recession, you actually need to have business savvy (or at least understand some the basics of business), a quality product, and excellent customer service.

Look at the mortgage / banking industry now! Since the collapse of the housing market there are over 200 well known mortgage companies that have gone under (big and small) - declared bankruptcy and left the business. Do you think they are the strong ones - or the weak ones? It is true market "Darwinism" - and the herd has been thinned out.

There is no magic way to survive during a recession - it is simply doing the things that every business should do all the time, but most businesses are too lazy to stay focused on - when the cash is flowing in.

I've been working with small businesses from varying industries and marketplaces for the past two years. I've also been doing some thorough research on down-turned markets in the past and how best to survive them. The trick to surviving can be reduced to 4 Principles of Sounds Business. Those principles are:

- Cash is king!
- Take care of your customers or someone else will!
- Deliver a consistent product / service every time!
- Marketing the smart way!

But. . . before I break these basic principles down for you, let me give you one other principle that applies as much to life as it does to business.

That additional principle is that all things being equal - there is an inverse relationship between spare money and spare time. It's rare to have both - money and time. So when money is down, you need to take advantage of your available time to make money. And when business is booming, there is rarely enough time to do the things you want to do, but plenty of money to pay someone else to do them.

So when sales are down (as they usually are in a recession), and there isn't a lot of work for you to do "in" your business - that is the best time to work "on" your business. And prepare it for the long road ahead. That may sound obvious, but most people don't seem to take advantage of the slower sales / customer traffic to do the work that needs to be done o create new business both today and in the future.

You see, when sales are up, you tend have a lot excess money and very little spare time. So you spend, spend, spend to get things done. But when things slow down, the opposite is usually true. The trick is to take advantage of the slow time to improve your business - apply the four principals to your business, survive the downturn and prepare for the big upswing that is forth coming by having a better run business.

Now, let's break the original Four Principles down a bit further.

Cash is king!

In any business cash is important. But during a recession, the businesses that have a ready supply of cash are going to thrive more than any other. Why is this more important during a recession than during a growth stage? Basically cash is more important during a downturn because credit becomes increasingly hard to come by - everyone is hurting and Banks / Lenders understand the importance of cash more than anyone.

There are many cases when profitable businesses go out of business because they failed to manage their cash flow properly. Don't let this happen to you. Look at your cash flow and begin to figure out where you can make adjustments to both accounts receivable and payable to ensure a healthy cash flow throughout your year.

Take care of your customers or someone else will!

During a downturn, most businesses will struggle and many will go out of business completely. This means that when all is said and done, you should have more market share after the downturn than before - though your sales may fall off. So, just because you might start gaining customers from others misfortunes - or misgivings, the one thing you do not want to do is lose your existing client base.

Your current clients are today, and will be for the coming months, your life blood. Take care of them. Nurture them. And by all means, make sure they know how important they are to your business.

And if you see them starting to leave - stop them! Get them back in your store - at all cost.

Deliver a consistent product / service every time!

The truth is, whether we are in a recession or not, for most small businesses across America (especially following the holidays) sales are slow and time is plentiful. The early part of the year tends to be a "breather" time for many businesses from retail to manufacturing.

Retail sales are down, so most retailers are cutting back. And most manufacturers are either re-tooling or re-evaluating for the coming year. So, take advantage of the slower times to build the systems and procedures that will enable you to deliver consistent products / services regardless of your staff.

The trick to long term success isn't being able to produce today - but to be able to produce a consistent product today, tomorrow and next month. If you product is hamburgers, make sure that everyone tastes the same, and the experience the customer gets every time is the same. If you product is mortgages, and one of your marketing elements is turnaround times for brokers, then make sure you can consistently deliver what you promise.

This requires strategic planning - to not only make sure you can deliver today - but also making sure you can deliver consistently on your promise during spikes in business as well as slow downs.

Make Decisions Based on Actual Measurable Facts - Not Gut Feelings!

All too often, small business owners will tell me "sales are down". I have no doubt that they are. But . . . the follow-up up questions is usually, how do you know?

Now, if they are able to pull up sales numbers quickly, I'll take it one step further and ask them Why? or Where are they down? To that question, I rarely get an answer. And without it, the right solutions to the problem are very difficult to come by.

Let me explain. So, what if we are talking about a phone sales company. We look at the data and overall sales are down 10%. That's bad right? Could be, but what if the product you main product is selling for 15% less this year than last year and overall volume is up 3%? Is that bad or good?

Or, what if new customer sales is up 100% and repeat customer sales are down 25%?

What problem needs to be focused on then? Or what if those numbers were reversed - what problem should you come up with a solution for?

Everything comes down to numbers and looking at them objectively - no matter how painful it might be. But I can tell you this - it might be tough looking at the numbers now and facing the facts that they present to you - but it is far better to find out the real truth now, when there is time to fix it, than in bankruptcy court, when you can only say to your lawyer, "My gosh, if I had only realized that back in December 2008, things would have been much better."

Over the course of the next four months, I will be taking these concepts and drilling down deeper so that you can make sure you know how best to apply them to your unique situation.

Be Different In the Eyes of Your Customers

Getting ahead in today's market (or any other time for that matter), whether we're talking personally or professionally, isn't about highlighting how you are the same as everyone else, it's about making sure everyone knows what makes you different.

In business, it's often easy to see others around you being "successful" at what they are doing and try to repeat their success. That's a natural thing. But if you build your entire business plan around being just like everyone else, how are you going to answer the question, "Why would your potential clients choose you over every other way to spend their money?" And more important, how are you going to do what everyone else is doing and steal business away from them - if you don't offer anything else?

Creating success, either professionally or personally, isn't as much about being like everyone else, as it is being different. You need to offer something that no one else offers - make a promise that no one else is willing or even capable of making.

Look at Dominos Pizza in the 1980s - they were an obscure Pizza Restaurant in a small college town, until they made a promise that no one else was willing to make - Hot and Fresh Pizza Delivered in 30 Minutes or Less. Not only did they break the mold, but they did so in such a manner that they dominated the industry for decades to come. They became the model that everyone else copied

And what about Zappos. Who would have thought that people would be willing to buy shoes online, like they do - without ever trying them on first? But with their customer service and commitment to your satisfaction, they've been able to sweep the market place. Do you think they would be as successful as they are today, if their business model was the same as Famous Footwear? I doubt it!

Figure out what makes you unique - what separates you from you competition. And find out what the market wants or needs from your industry that aren't being addressed. When you do, and you embed it inside your Marketing Message - you will see a difference both in the way your current and future clients see you, as well as how your competition looks at you. And instead of you chasing them for marketshare, they will be chasing you.

Stop Waiting For The Phone To Ring

Regardless of your industry or size of your business, many of you are saying the same thing, "Business seems to be drying up. The phone just isn't ringing like it used to."

Why is that? Is it all the recession? Or is there something that you are or aren't doing that is contributing to your current situation?

If you ask me, the recession is a contributing factor, but it isn't the only reason your sales and profits are down. In my opinion, blaming some THING or some ONE else is a victim's attitude.

With every crisis, there is an opportunity to create a new success. So your job is to find that opportunity and seize it - to take the actions that no one else is willing or able to take in your market.

And so, I offer to you that making the phone ring and customers walk through your door isn't something you can fix today. It required weeks of work and investment in marketing that should have begun long before now. So stop stressing about it. Use that energy to launch yourself to the next level. And focus on what you can do NOW to affect your business tomorrow, next week and next month.

You see, you can't change your current reality any more than you can change your past. You are where you are right now, because of your actions (or in-actions) of the past. Today, you can only change your future, not your present. So unless you want to have the same conditions next month as you have today, it's time to look at what different actions you are going to take RIGHT NOW to change your current reality into what you want for the future.

The next couple months and years are going to be tough. But I can promise you this, they will be a lot tougher, if you don't get involved and start taking control of your own destiny. Odds are no one is going to bail you out.

Of all the times to be a business owner - now is not the time to sit on the sideline and wait for customers to find you. Get out there and be willing to take chances. Start taking control of your business - take control of your marketing and rather than waiting for your phone to ring, MAKE IT RING.

Make your potential customers choose you over every other option they have to spend their money.

Are Your Sales Down? By How Much?

Ask any small business owner these two questions and they can usually give you exact numbers.

But ask them the more important questions, "Why?" or "Which element of sales is down?", and most will look at you with completely blank stares. Or they will ask you a question right back, "What difference does it make?"

So I ask you, the reader, does it matter? Should I care why sales are down, or just that sales are down? Probably no surprise to you, but in my opinion, the answer to both of these questions is, "Absolutely, it matters."

If your industry average sales numbers are down 30% and you are only down 5%, are you doing something right or doing something wrong?

How about if your new customer sales are up 25% but your repeat customer sales are down 40%, do you have a marketing problem, an operational problem, or perhaps both? What if those numbers were reversed.

Unfortunately, it's my experience as a Small Business Coach, that most owners are incapable of asking these questions, because they don't gather the information necessary to even consider them. All they seem to care about is total sales and, surprisingly, to a lesser degree total profit. And no matter how much I try to get them to seek out more data, they continue to fall back on these big picture numbers - and stop there.

So what can you, as a small business owner, do about this? First, you need to recognize that you have a responsibility to your business to do whatever it needs to help it survive - not what feels good to you. And you can start with grasping the idea that your business needs you to start managing it - and stop letting it manage you.

The first step to management is measurement. So start measuring everything. Measure the number of times the phone rings (and what times it rings). Measure average sales every day, what kind of sales occur between 2-4pm on Tuesdays and which ones occur on Wednesday evenings. Measure your conversion rates, from both phone-in and website leads, separately.

But don't stop there. If you can think of it, measure it.

Do it all by hand at first (if you must). But over time, figure out how to automate it all.

And remember, the more you measure, the more you can manage. The more you can manage, the more you can begin to improve. The more you improve, the better the bottom line. And that's your ultimate goal - to improve your business and drive up profits.

Taking Control and Making It Work!

In spite of his industry averaging a 20% decline in sales because of the recession, one of my clients is actually setting out this year to achieve a 25% increase over last years gross revenue numbers. Is he crazy thinking such a thing could happen? Some think so.

I don't! He would only be crazy if he did the same things, took the same actions that he did last year, and thought he would still reach his goals.

But he's NOT! He's taking control and making it work.

In fact, he is taking such big steps to make his goals come true, there is a chance that he could do 50% better (or even more) than last year - that is if he keeps his focus and continues to push himself out of his comfort zone.

However, in spite of the "lofty" goals, what he's doing isn't magical. And it will probably sound simple to many of you - but the key is what he's doing, but instead that he is doing it. He's not waiting for the market to turn or for someone else to come in and save his business. Hes taking control and making it work, because you can't count on either of those two things happening anytime soon.

His strategy is simple - develop a consistent product that generates repeat clients, while leveraging inexpensive measurable marketing methodologies to attract new customers into the fold. To make this happen, he's broken down his strategy into three definable action areas:

- Go aggressively after B2B (Business to Business) clients - Realizing the stability of B2B revenue, my client is focusing considerable effort on this phase of his business. It was part of his business that had been very lucrative for his him in the past. However, because of a lack of well defined systems, management of this effort was insane - often causing him sleepless nights countless headaches. But now, he has committed to putting together both operational systems to keep his services consistent and sales systems to gather more of reliable clients and begin gathering market share (while others are retracting).

It's a bold plan, but he is beginning to see the benefits of his efforts -getting more and more B2B clients signing up for his services. Meanwhile, with his new operational sytems in place, the management of the service is becoming easier and easier.

- Do everything he can to keep his existing clients happy and returning for more business - Again, focused on leveraging the stability of income from keeping his existing customers happy, my client has stepped up his commitment to seek out and understand their needs and concerns. He's now going well beyond just providing a service, but also providing VALUE beyond their expectations. And again, it's paying off, as repeat B2C sales are up as well as referrals and the numbers of unsolicited testimonials.

- Attempting to get new B2C (Business to Customer) clients while leveraging less costly marketing methodologies that have very measurable results. Recognizing the cost and unreliability of his past marketing methods, my client is beginning to get smarter about attracting new clients to his business. Simply stated, he's taking more control into his own hands and making it work.

In the past, he would handed it off his marketing to other agencies and trust that they had his best interests in mind. That was costly and very unreliable. But now, he is learning how to do much of the work himself. In addition, when either time is limited or real expertise is needed, he is being more proactive with the teams he contracts out to. He is aggressively holding those that are supporting him accountable to produce what they say they will produce.

All three of these methods may seem common sense to some of you. But I ask you, how are YOU taking different actions this year to achieve your goals? How are YOU taking control of your business's destiny instead of "hoping" things will get better?

What is your strategy for improving your bottom line in the coming year.

How are YOU taking control and making it work?

What Your Customers Want and Need From You

Regardless of your industry, your customers are looking for you to provide them what they want and / or need. And interestingly enough, those wants and needs fall into four basic levels - the four levels of customer service. The more you understand them and can fold them into your business methods, the more likely your customers will choose you again and again - and even recommend you to their friends and family. In fact, if you understand the four levels of customer service, you will become more to your customers than you have ever been before and you will begin to see that your customers will become more to you than you could possibly imagine.

Those four needs (levels of customer service) are:

- Getting the product they expect
- Being able to get the product they want, when they want it and where they want it
- Having you understand them and feel that you are on the same team - not opposition
- Being able to rely on you as an expert in your field.

The first two levels are not just wants, but in fact requirements that your customers demand of you to continue using your services / products. If you fail to provide the product that you promise and fail to provide it in a location convenient for them at the time they want / need it, they will choose another business to patron. That isn't an opinion – it is tested and proven correctly, everyday, in every business around the country.

You see, it doesn't matter how clean your store is, how friendly and nice your employees are, or how much you know about what you do - if you can't fulfill the first two needs, your customers will move on.

But not to worry, this is why you are in business – to provide your product or service when and where your customers want it. These are the easiest parts of customer service – the parts that you built into your business from the very beginning. These parts, product, location and availability are easy to create and easy to provide. Unfortunately for you, they are also very easy for your competition to duplicate. That's right in today's world, your competitors can easily provide the same service or product that you provide, where and when your customers want it.

So the essence of customer service comes down to the second two needs – both of which separate you from your competition and are very difficult to duplicate.

First lets talk about understanding your customers and getting them to believe that you are their friend – helping them to solve their problems.

Most businesses sell the product or provide the service that they create – not what the customer is looking for. The trick to reaching this level of customer service is to stop and figure out what you can offer your customers, systematically, that will fulfill some of their biggest needs / concerns beyond just getting your product.

As an example, one of my clients, a cleaning specialist, recognized the value of this level of customer service. He noticed that many of his customers were selling their house or had just moved into a new house and wanted his services. So, in order to drum up new business, he created guarantee – If you sell your home with six months of using his services, he will clean the same areas of the home for free when the new owners move in. By making this simple gesture, he showed his customers that he understood how difficult the process of selling a home is, and that he is on their side – and will help out by relieving them of the burden of having to re-clean again after the sale is made.

Another example of this comes from another one of my clients – a medical professional. He realizes the importance of understanding his patients' needs, too. But in this case, this Doctor wanted to honor his patient's time. So he created a guarantee, that no other doctor I know has the gumption to make. He guarantees that if you aren't seen within 15 minutes of your scheduled appointment, you will get a free $20 gas card at a local gas station. Sound crazy – you bet it is – but his patients love it and he is always on time!

So, take a look at your customers and figure out what it is that is really going to help them feel understood – because the business that can pull this off is one step closer to turning your one time customers into lifelong cheerleaders.

Finally, the last level of customer service is becoming an expert in your industry – someone that they know they can turn to for advice and someone that teaches them the ins and outs of the industry (the trade secrets). Reaching this level is truly about becoming more than just a product provider and becoming a source of information on the hows and whys of what you do.
Again, to provide some examples of this concept, let me bring up a couple of clients.

The first example is a flower shop. A couple of months back they began teaching their clients how to arrange by offering evening classes with their clients. Some might think that this would hurt sales – those customers won't need to buy flowers any more. They will be able to make their own. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Because not only did they attend the classes, but they talked about the classes (and the shop that provided them) to every one of their friends and families. Suddenly, they became the talk around the dinner table – as much as the centerpiece itself did.

And another example goes back to my cleaning specialist client. In his newsletter, he gave away his secret cleaning recipe. That's right just gave it away to all of his customers. How crazy could he be? Now instead of calling him when they have a small stain that needs to be cleaned, they can go to any thrift or grocery store and get the ingredients to mix up his special homemade cleaning agent and NOT have to call him to come out.

But wait . . . Do you think when it's the grime builds up on their carpets or tile floors, they will call someone else? Absolutely not. And do you think they will share this information and where they got it from with their neighbors. You better believe it. So without spending a dime, this client of mine has taken his customers from just being one time customers to now being truly fans of his business and the testimonials and referrals just come streaming in.

So, by moving beyond just providing your product and service when and where you clients want or need it, and beginning to understand your clients bigger concerns and issues as well as becoming an expert source for your clients, you are well on your way from just having one time customers to having cheerleaders and raving fans that will grow your business faster and more effectively than any other form of marketing out there.