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by Rick Baker
On Jun 22, 2010
In his book The Sticking Point Solution Jay Abraham explained why businesses experience stagnation. www.abraham.com
Rather than post the negative, I will reword Jay’s 4 points as
How to get your business humming
How to get your business humming
1. Incorporate growth thinking into every aspect of the business
2. Measure, monitor, compare, and quantify results
3. Have a detailed strategic marketing plan with specific performance growth expectations
4. Know how to set appropriate, specific goals
No question, Jay’s advice is good advice.
***
Some suggestions on how to go about getting your business humming:
- Concentrate on gross margin growth
- Measure the ‘net present value’ of new clients...ie, don’t underestimate the value of new clients
- Take simple tactical action and make simple strategic decisions…rather than doing one or the other*
- Use simple practical tools and processes…aiming for timeliness of action rather than perfection
- Learn simple measurement methods…if you are not convinced the action can work then don’t guess…don’t do it…only take action you think will work
- When goals are being set…intentionally set the bar on the low side
- Be open to ideas…that doesn’t mean act on all ideas…just be open-minded and consider many ideas
- Make decisions quickly…act, test, and repeat what is working
- Focus on the bright lights…some things will work better than other things…do more of the things that are working better
- Build on your human Strengths [where Strengths = Talent + Knowledge + Skills]
Enjoy your success.
Footnote: Strategy and tactics should not be treated as isolated things. Whether openly discussed or not, the tactics we have employed in the past tend to remain 'nearby' in our minds. Tactics guide action and action generates results….results, accurately measured results, feed and inject value into the planning process.
by Rick Baker
On Jun 15, 2010
People ask me how they should go about comparing themselves against their competition.
Should we hand out those lists comparing features and benefits, illustrating item-by-item how our stuff stacks up against the stuff our competition sells?
Should we badmouth our competition, badmouth the people, badmouth the products, and services, and badmouth the company?
My quick answers are:
- I think badmouthing the competition is worse than a total waste of time…it is a backward step in the marketing and sales interaction
- I don’t see much merit in comparing head-to-head against the competition…these comparisons are better placed when in the hands of unbiased third parties [journalists and mavens]
Don’t Badmouth Competitors :
Buyers are assaulted over and over again with this. Often, it is more subtle than blatant. But, few sales people can totally refrain from taking shots at their competition. Some do it more than others. Almost all do it sooner or later. So, this is one area where sales people can differentiate themselves in a positive way. I will not get into arguments of a psychological nature...ie, that negative messages breed negative thinking in buyers’ minds and that negativity blankets the interaction…etc. While that is likely true, I think the differentiation opportunity alone is good reason enough.
There are better ways than comparing head-to-head against Competitors:
If we ask our clients and probable future clients to confirm [that is, prove to us] the important factors and we then create accurate comparisons of the factors – ours versus our competitors’ – then perhaps this can be of some marketing/sales value. Regardless, there are at least 2 better ways to illustrate the advantages you enjoy over your competition.
They are:
- Become acknowledged as leading experts in your market sector…that is, employ a strategy of market pre-eminence [branding]
- Have independent 3rd-party mavens trumpet the strengths and values of the things you create and sell
While these things take time they yield huge future value.
More details to follow in future blogs…
by Rick Baker
On Jun 8, 2010
Huge numbers of people are hammering away, trying to capture other people's attention and cause them to do this or to do that.
***
Every Thursday someone places on my laneway a plastic bag filled with flyers and other direct sales stuff. I was very glad it didn't snow much last winter. I only choked my snow blower twice with those bags of sales flyers. Now, getting all those jammed-in chunks of paper out of my snow blower was quite a task. Now, I'm hoping it doesn't rain on Thursdays: it is annoying when those flyer bags get all wet and mushy.
Last week I received 5 e-mails promoting an upcoming presentation to be held in Oakville. I guess I could press a button somewhere to unsubscribe from these communications. But, I have decided not to do that. I'm very curious about watching these folks going about their marketing. And, maybe someday I will want to visit Oakville.
Yesterday, I received a note from a friend. The note was part of an exchange we are having about networking (ie, people networking). One phrase caught my attention:
most work environments are about "more" versus "better"
That said, I'm going to cut this blog short...
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by Rick Baker
On May 13, 2010
Last week, we had the pleasure of attending ‘ Found Online: Building Your Online Strategy For 2010’, an education seminar presented by Erin and Ryan Schnarr of Springpad Media. www.springpad.com
This event was a well-attended Centre For Family Business’ education seminar. www.cffb.ca
Here are a couple of the good pieces of advice provided by Springpad Media at the event last week.
Questions you should ask when Building Your Website Strategy:
- What is the goal of the site?
- How will people find you?
- What are your competitors doing?
- What is the desired action for each visitor?
Following these points, Springpad Media presented a flowchart showing the various ‘action steps’ taken by different types of visitors ‘walking through’ a website.
Much of this resonates with thoughts we have been working on.
Question 2 above… How will people find you? resonates perfectly with Question #5 of the 7 Powerful Answers series, that is How do you PLAN to connect with those people who care? 7 Powerful Answers #5
Springpad Media provided many tips about website design. Here are examples: keep your website content simple, focused and relevant and don’t limit yourself or do more than your customers want.
Great advice!
We appreciated the way Springpad Media customized their presentation to fit the audience.
Here is another introduction to Erin and Ryan’s advice…about online advertising:
What’s your goal?
- building brand awareness?
- creating customer response?
At this section of their presentation, Erin and Ryan explained how different website design approaches fit different goals. I will not try to relay their advice, which is based on their many years of solid experience…I recommend contacting them to learn more. www.springpad.com
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by Rick Baker
On Apr 28, 2010
You are the CEO.
For some strange reason a loud voice declared “STOP THE PRESSES” and everything at your operation, all the people and all the machines, came to a screeching halt.
But, you were unscathed.
So you took some time to rest and relax. Then, after doing that for a while, you became bored and you asked yourself:
"How should I get things back on track?"
"How should I re-start the people and re-start the presses?"
“What are the right things to do?”
As you stopped to think, ideas started to come to you…
***
Wouldn’t it be great if We Are Always Able to Prove We Deliver Value after we re-start our operation.
How might we go about making sure that happens?
What if…
- What if our people decide they will only do fair deals and they will live by the
motto Fair Deals Or No Deals …that would help
- What if we commit to handling money decisions as if we were in the other
guy’s shoes and we adopt The Other Guy’s Shoes Money-Rule …that would help
- What if we truly know our target markets and the value propositions they
perceive and we cover this in a mindset we call Tarmarvalproda …that
would help
***
You gave these things deep thought, creating plans for Fair Deals Or No Deals, The Other Guy’s Shoes Money-Rule, and your marketing mindset called Tarmarvalproda so you and your people will be able to accurately state We Are Always Able to Prove We Deliver Value.
You wrote out your plans for these things so you could share them when the time was right.
You made a commitment to yourself…these things would be in place when you re-start your people and you re-start your presses.
You decided to sleep on it and see if any more ideas came to you.
To be continued…
by Rick Baker
On Mar 18, 2010
The communication expert Dr. Frank Luntz recommends 21 Words for the 21st Century.
To be accurate, he recommends a few more than 21 words and some of his recommendations are short phrases.
Frank spends most of his time consulting to businesses; however, he is well-recognized for helping politicians.
Most of his 21 Words for the 21st Century apply to both politics and business.
A listing of the words, as I am doing below, does not come close to doing justice to the thought Dr. Luntz has given to these words. Not just the thought...but also the research and the intense testing through surveys.
The 21 Words for the 21st Century are:
- Imagine
- Hassle-free
- Lifestyle
- We Deliver (Accountability)
- Results and the Can Do Spirit
- Innovation
- Re-words: renew, revitalize, rejuvenate, restore, rekindle, reinvent
- Efficient and Efficiency
- The Right to...
- Patient-centered (medical)
- Investment
- Casual Elegance (travel)
- Independent (no conflicts)
- Peace of Mind
- Certified
- All-American [in our case…All-Canadian]
- Prosperity
- Spirituality
- Financial Security
- A Balanced Approach
- A Culture Of...
Throughout his book, ‘Words That Work - It's not what you say, It’s what people hear’, Dr Luntz stresses 'being positive' over 'being critical'.
He also stresses simplicity….keep your messages simple, easy to read, and easy to understand.
What impresses me most about Dr Luntz’s approach is he is a champion for targeting messages to meet the audience…putting yourself in the audience’s shoes, doing what you can to understand their views, doing your best to understand how they hear things, etc.
That approach to communication is perhaps the most-important thing in 21st Century business.
More on communication in future blogs…
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